Despite the efforts the Biden administration has taken to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students, a federal judge in Kentucky has halted the president’s actions, which will impact youth across the country.

On Thursday, January 9, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves struck down the 1,500-page regulation addition to Title IX, saying that it was “fatally” tainted by legal shortcomings. This move comes on the tail-end of legal challenges halting the rule change in 26 other states, with the judge’s decision now applying to all 50.

Included in his statement, the judge also found that it violated free speech rights by requiring teachers to use pronouns aligning with a student’s gender identity. “The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner,” Reeves wrote.

The decision came in response to a collaborative lawsuit, filed by the states of Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called it a rejection of the Biden administration’s “relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology.” Regarding the case’s outcome, Skrmetti said in a statement, “Because the Biden rule is vacated altogether, President Trump will be free to take a fresh look at our Title IX regulations when he returns to office.”

The Biden administration ignited controversy in 2024 when it finalized the rule language changes. The regulation expanded Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding discrimination based on sex in education, to also prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It also widened the definition of harassment to include a broader range of misconduct.

Civil rights advocates praised the move, stating it would give LGBTQ+ students new recourse against discrimination. As to also be expected, it drew conservative outrage, who saw it as a move that could be used to protect transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Counter to that sentiment, Title IX itself doesn’t explicitly address athletics, as it is mostly detailed as to how schools and colleges were required to respond to cases of discrimination and sexual assault. A separate proposal dealing with transgender athletes in sports was put on the back burner and later revoked after it became a focal point of Trump’s campaign.

Bill Cassidy, R-La., chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said Biden’s rule “betrayed the original intent of Title IX by removing longstanding protections that ensured fairness for women and girls.”“With President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress, we will ensure women and girls have every opportunity to succeed on the field and in the classroom,” Cassidy said in a statement.

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