Federal judge rejects Moms for Liberty request to expand injunction on Title IX gender identity protections

A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected a request from activist groups including Moms for Liberty to expand his injunction blocking the Biden administration from implementing a new Title IX rule. The new rule bans discrimination based on gender identity in healthcare as part of the Affordable Healthcare Act. But the judge also refused to lessen the scope of his injunction at the request of the Biden administration.

On July 2, U.S. District Judge John Broomes granted an injunction from the plaintiffs blocking the new rule going into effect in four states and the schools attended by the children of Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United, noting their case was likely to win on the merits. However, he denied their most recent request to further expand the reach of his ruling, saying he lacked the jurisdiction to modify his previous injunction.

While the ruling was welcome news to the administration and LGBTQ+ advocates, Broomes provided a mixed bag of rulings when he denied the administration’s request to lessen the scope of his injunction. In a sharply worded section, he blamed the administration for creating the current difficulties of implementing a new rule while it is under judicial review.

“Suffice it to say that, to the extent Defendants are concerned about the difficulties in managing patchwork enforcement in compliance with the preliminary injunction, this is a problem of DoE’s own making for the multiple reasons set forth in the court’s prior order,” Broome wrote in his ruling. “One might have expected that upending the operations of virtually every school in the nation by upsetting the decades-long understanding of important parts of Title IX, as the Final Rule does, would result in some significant difficulties for enforcement while the Final Rule undergoes judicial review.”

He also noted that Congress gave the department the authority to postpone the implementation date to allow for judicial review.

“Maybe DoE should use that authority,” Broomes wrote.

Legal experts have noted that while a patchwork of lawsuits has blocked the new rule in 15 states, this is the first lawsuit that also impacts schools outside the four plaintiff states. The injunction also applies not just to schools in Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming and those attended by members of the children of current members of Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United, but also to the children of prospective and future members.