TOPEKA – On Friday, Kansas filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s unilateral expansion of Title IX to cover gender identity, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
The filing follows through on Schmidt’s announcement last month that Kansas would bring a legal challenge to the federal administration’s threat to withhold funds from schools that do not follow its new “guidance” on the issue.
The lawsuit filed Friday in federal district court in Lincoln is led by Nebraska. In addition to Nebraska and Kansas, the plaintiffs are Arkansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The lawsuit notes that the Kansas State Board of Education voted unanimously not to implement the new federal guidance but instead to leave to local school districts discretion in how to accommodate transgender students.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination in federally funded education on the basis of sex. The new “guidance” attempts, without an act of Congress, to redefine “on the basis of sex” to cover gender identity in addition to biological sex. In some cases, the new federal “guidance” has been construed to govern the policies used by local school districts in providing bathroom facilities for their students.