SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A federal judge issued a temporary ruling Thursday in favor of Carroll ISD and blocking expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students from taking effect in August.
The changes to Title IX, announced by the U.S. Department of Education in April, clarify that it also protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas in his ruling Thursday said the preliminary injunction covers Carroll ISD for now but requested briefings by July 18 on potentially broadening the injunction to include other school districts.
O’Connor said in his ruling that the changes to Title IX, the law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance, would cause irreparable harm to the district and force it to spend millions to make changes in policies and procedures and to train staff.
“The compliance costs also go beyond monetary harm given the potential to infringe on constitutional rights,” O’Connor’s ruling reads. “Privileging gender identity over biological sex is in no way authorized by the statutory text. And the consequences based on this statutory distortion appear limitless. For these reasons, and those stated by other federal courts, Carroll ISD is likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge to the final rule.”
WFAA has reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment on the ruling.
Southlake Carroll ISD filed the lawsuit challenging the Title IX changes in May. The district is represented in the case by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which also worked to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Also in May, the Carroll ISD board of trustees passed a resolution “denouncing” the changes to Title IX.
Carroll ISD’s lawsuit came shortly after the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) invited the district to negotiate a resolution after it upheld four complaints filed by ex-students who said they faced discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation.