A lawsuit filed by Oklahoma officials has resulted in a preliminary injunction that prevents the Biden administration from forcing Oklahoma schools to allow men to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

The injunction was issued the same week that controversy swelled over the decision of Paris Olympics to allow two individuals, previously identified as having testosterone and male chromosomes, to compete in women’s boxing.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised the ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

“This well-reasoned ruling helps to protect both female and male students from invasions of privacy and unnecessary harm,” Drummond said. “Our students deserve the protections that have long been provided by Title IX.”

In April, the Biden administration announced it was issuing regulations to dramatically rewrite federal Title IX law.

As originally passed in 1972, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities at schools and colleges that receive federal funds.

But under the Biden administration’s regulatory rewrite, which was set to take effect on Aug. 1, Title IX would instead target many women with the threat of sexual-harassment investigations if they object to the presence of males in bathrooms and locker rooms.

Drummond filed a lawsuit in May seeking a preliminary injunction against the rule elevating gender identity over Title IX’s express protections of male and female students.

The complaint Drummond filed argued that the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) under Education Secretary Miguel Cardona “ignores the literal text of the statute and the purpose behind the creation” of Title IX law, “disregards the lack of public support for the proposed rule,” and “jeopardizes the equal opportunity that has been afforded to female athletes ever since the establishment of the statute.”

Drummond’s complaint stated that federal Title IX’s “safe-harbor for ‘separate’ male and female facilities ‘would be rendered meaningless’ if ‘sex’ did not refer to a male-female binary based on physiological differences.”

The state lawsuit also argued that the Biden administration regulations would preempt existing Oklahoma state law that prevents boys from participating in girls’ athletic events at public schools and a law that limits access to public school bathrooms based on sex.

U.S. District Judge Jodi W. Dishman granted Oklahoma’s preliminary injunction in full, preventing the new Title IX rule from taking effect throughout Oklahoma.

Among other things, Dishman held that Oklahoma was likely to succeed in showing that the Biden Administration’s final rule “exceeds statutory authority, violates the Constitution, and is arbitrary and capricious.”

In her order, Dishman found the new rule is at odds with Title IX’s clear purpose.

“The Final Rule elevates gender identity and its accompanying protections above that of biological sex,” Dishman wrote. “Such a contradiction of Title IX’s text and an erosion of its purpose cannot be permitted absent congressional action.”

Dishman also observed that the rule was “inexplicably logically inconsistent with several provisions of Title IX.” For example, she noted a biological male identifying as a female would be required to sleep in the boys’ dorm but be allowed to use the girls’ locker room under the Biden administration’s regulatory rewrite.

“This approach undercuts Title IX’s purpose, epitomizes a clear error in judgement and entirely fails to consider important aspects of the problem the Department sought to resolve,” Dishman wrote.

Dishman wrote that the Biden administration’s “claim that it can expand ‘sex’ in Title IX to include ‘gender identity’ despite several decades of ‘sex’ solely meaning the biological differences between men and women falls flat.”

“The debate regarding the relationship between sex and gender identity is a motivating factor behind countless lawsuits, legislation, and political debates,” Dishman wrote. “The enactment of the Final Rule is the essence of an agency claiming to discover, in a statute that has been enacted for over fifty years, a previously unknown power to decide how broadly ‘sex’ is defined and applied—i.e., a decision of vast political significance. So, even if there was a plausible textual basis for the Department’s interpretation of Title IX, the Department would need to point to clear congressional authorization for its ability to redefine sex in a way that includes or implicates gender identity. The Department has not done so, and Congress has not clearly given the Department authority to redefine sex in a way that would be inconsistent with other portions of the statute.”

‘Glorified Male Violence Against Women’

Dishman’s order was issued even as the Paris Olympics is mired in controversary regarding officials’ decision to allow two individuals with male characteristics to compete in women’s boxing.

Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan were both allowed to compete in women’s boxing even though both individuals were previously barred from participating in women’s events at the 2023 World Championships because gender-eligibility testing showed the two had high levels of testosterone and/or male chromosomes.

Some reports have suggested Khelif is intersex, a condition in which individuals are outwardly female but have male chromosomes or anatomy.

Khelif’s first Olympic bout ended after only 46 seconds. Khelif’s opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, proclaimed the fight unjust.

Critics across the globe agreed with Carini.

Riley Gaines, a former college athlete who has become a leading opponent of allowing men to compete in women’s events as “transgender women,” was among those condemning Olympic officials’ decision.

“After 46 seconds and a few hits to the face by a male, Carini forfeited the fight,” Gaines wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “Call me crazy, but it’s almost as if women don’t want to be punched in the face by a male as the world watches and applauds. This is glorified male violence against women.”

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books and an outspoken critic of allowing men to invade women’s spaces when the male claims to identify as transgender, also spoke out, posting video of the Khelif-Carini fight on X.

“Watch this (whole thread), then explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment,” Rowling wrote. “This isn’t sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organisers who allowed this to happen, this is men revelling in their power over women.”

Photo credit: Sipa USA via AP