Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi permanently struck down a rule from the Biden administration that redefined sex discrimination to include “gender identity,” and which would have extended federal anti-discrimination protections in health care to people with gender confusion. Under Title IX, the final rule would have empowered those with gender confusion to decry sex discrimination for being denied insurance coverage for harmful puberty blockers, hormones, and mutilating surgeries, and would have forced states to use taxpayer dollars to pay for them. The judge ruled that Biden’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which was responsible for administering the rule, “exceeded its authority” because Title IX’s definition of sex was never intended to include gender ideology.

The rule was initially implemented in 2016 under the Obama administration but was reinstated under the Biden administration after President Donald Trump removed it during his first term. After President Trump entered his second term, he signed two executive orders conflicting with the rule directing the federal government to recognize only the male and female sexes and not to fund “destructive” gender procedures. As a result of litigation and the executive orders, the regulation never took effect.

In May 2024, 15 states sued Biden’s HHS stating the rule would require state health care plans to pay for “unproven and costly” procedures that can harm and mutilate a person. Then, in July 2024, U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. temporarily blocked the rule from taking effect nationwide. Now, Judge Guirola awarded summary judgment to the 15 states and permanently vacated the rule for violating Title IX’s original meaning.

“In the opinion of the Court, Congress only contemplated biological sex when it enacted Title IX in 1972,” wrote Judge Guirola. “Therefore, the Court finds that HHS exceeded its authority by implementing regulations redefining sex discrimination and prohibiting gender-identity discrimination.”

Judge Guirola specified that Congress enacted Title IX to prevent sex discrimination in education and did not “contemplate gender identity” at the time since the definition of “sex” is focused on the biological distinctions between males and females only. Therefore, the statue cannot “be divorced” from the language’s meaning and its reason for enactment in 1972, wrote Judge Guirola. 

The 15 states in the lawsuit included Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

In 2024, at least three other U.S. district judges also blocked Biden’s Department of Education from enforcing the same redefinition of “sex” in its Title IX-based rules. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Taxpayers should never have to fund this radical agenda that harms people. This judgment shows forcing gender ideology into health care plans is detached from biological reality and infusing ‘gender identity’ into law lacks merit.”