The Letter and the Law
I read the new Title IX regulations so you do not have to. The document runs 1,438 pages. It redefines sex discrimination to include gender identity, pronoun usage, and facilities access—all without a single Congressional vote authorizing any of it.
The Heritage Foundation legal team has it right: this is agency legislation, not agency interpretation. The Department of Education rewrote statute through regulatory fiat.
The Court Blockades
Four federal districts have already issued preliminary injunctions. Texas blocked it first, then Louisiana, then Idaho. A fifth injunction came down last week in Alabama. The pattern is clear: judges are reading the Administrative Procedure Act, and they do not like what they see.
Congress writes laws. Agencies enforce them. When agencies start writing laws, the separation of powers collapses.
The Biden administration argument hinges on Bostock v. Clayton County—but Title VII employment law and Title IX education funding are separate statutes with different legislative histories.
What Parents Are Doing
School boards in sixteen states are filing amicus briefs. Parents are pulling children from athletics rather than see biological males compete in female categories. The coalition is wider than anyone predicted.
