On July 11, federal district courts in Amarillo and Fort Worth blocked the implementation of the 2024 Title IX Rules, joining courts in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Kansas that have placed the new rules on hold. The Amarillo court’s decision enjoins enforcement of any portion of the regulations against all Texas public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. The Fort Worth court limited its preliminary injunction, for now, to Carroll Independent School District—the lone plaintiff in that case—but requested additional briefing on the  scope of relief.  

What Did the Amarillo Court Decide?  

In April 2024, the State of Texas filed suit in federal court in Amarillo on behalf of the state’s entire public education system and asked for a preliminary injunction to halt the rules’ implementation in Texas.  

In granting injunctive relief, the court agreed with the State’s objection to  the LGBTQI+ protections under the new rules, finding that the Department of Education’s decision to define sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity violates Title IX. The court held that Title IX prohibits discrimination based only on “biological sex.” The court rejected ED’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII.  

The Amarillo court also found that 2024 Title IX Rules’ definition of hostile environment harassment likely violates the First Amendment. The court ruled that “misgendering” a transgender student is constitutionally protected speech and expressed concern that the Title IX rules’ prohibition of verbal harassment would lead to unlawful punishment for misgendering.  

In addition, the court determined that 2024 Title IX Rules wrongly require healthcare plans offered by educational institutions to cover abortion. The regulations prohibit schools from treating “pregnancy or related conditions” differently from other health conditions under any medical benefit plans offered to students. The court concluded that the rules’ inclusion of abortion under the rubric of “pregnancy or related conditions” forces Texas schools to cover abortions through health insurance, in violation of state law.   

Last, the court found that some new Title IX rules regarding the Title IX grievance process are arbitrary and capricious because they violate due process protections under the U.S. Constitution. The court determined that the single-investigator model, which gives schools the option to have the same employee serve as both investigator and decisionmaker in the grievance process, violates students’ due process rights. The court also found that regulations allowing schools to initially provide a student accused of a Title IX violation an accurate description of the evidence, rather than copies of the evidence itself, and allowing institutions of higher education to choose whether to conduct questioning through live hearings or separate meetings with the parties, violate due process protections. The court, however, rejected Texas’s challenges to regulations that allow schools to use the preponderance of evidence standard of proof in the grievance process and govern when a Title IX Coordinator can initiate a Title IX complaint and investigation.  

The Amarillo court concluded that implementation of the 2024 Title IX Rules would impose compliance costs on the State of Texas and expose the state’s educational institutions to loss of federal funding if they do not comply with the rules. The court, therefore, enjoined ED from implementing, enacting, or enforcing any provision of the 2024 Title IX Rules against the State of Texas. Although the court’s ruling does not say so explicitly, the opinion and the history of the arguments in the case suggest that the injunction applies to all Texas public K-12 schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.  

What Did the Fort Worth Court Decide? 

Carroll Independent School District, located near Dallas, filed a separate challenge to the new Title IX rules in federal court in Fort Worth. In that case, the court enjoined ED from implementing or enforcing the regulations against Carroll ISD.  

Unlike the Amarillo court, the Fort Worth court focused solely on the 2024 Title IX Rules’ prohibition of discrimination based on gender identity. The court found that the regulations “privilege[] gender identity over biological sex” in violation of Title IX. The court determined that in defining prohibited sex discrimination as inclusive of discrimination based on gender identity, ED prioritized harms felt by transgender students “at the expense of non-transgender students” without sufficient explanation. The court also expressed concern that gender identity is “subjective” and that non-transgender students may take advantage of the new regulations by temporarily identifying as transgender to obtain “extra opportunities and protections.”  

The Fort Worth court’s preliminary injunction bars ED from enforcing any provision of the 2024 Title IX Rules against Carroll ISD. The court asked Carroll ISD and the federal government to submit additional briefing by July 18 on the future scope of the relief in the case. In addition to limiting enforcement of the rules against the district itself, Carroll ISD has asked the court for a nationwide stay of the rules’ August 1 effective date. The court asked the parties to brief whether such a stay is appropriate and whether it can and/or should be limited to Carroll ISD or apply to school districts that are not parties to the lawsuit. 

What’s Next? 

Based on the Amarillo court’s decision, ED is currently prohibited from implementing or enforcing the 2024 Title IX Rules against public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, including community colleges and public four-year colleges and universities, throughout Texas. The Fort Worth court has limited the scope of its decision, for now, to Carroll ISD but will consider a potentially broader stay of the rules’ August 1 effective date in the coming weeks.  

We anticipate that the federal government will appeal both courts’ decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and, potentially, the Supreme Court. The federal government may also ask the district court and the Fifth Circuit to narrow the injunctions while the appeals are pending, to allow portions of the 2024 Title IX Rules not specifically addressed by the courts’ decisions to go into effect.  

We will continue to monitor both Texas cases and ongoing challenges to the Title IX rules pending in other courts across the country and provide continuous updates on civilrightsclassroom.com.   

Contact your Thompson & Horton attorney or our Title IX team at titleix@thlaw.com with any questions.