On July 2, a district court in Kansas joined ranks with other courts across the country in granting a preliminary injunction blocking implementation or enforcement of the 2024 Title IX final rule. This latest injunction, however, departs from its predecessors by halting the regulations at individual K-12 schools and colleges and universities — hundreds of them — across nearly all 50 states.
The recent order provides at least temporary clarity in a lawsuit challenging the regulations brought by the states of Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming, one minor student, and three plaintiff organizations: Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United. Judge John W. Broomes recently enjoined — or prohibited — the Department of Education and its agents from enforcing the 2024 final rule against the plaintiff states, the individual plaintiff student’s school, any schools attended by members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, and any schools attended by children of Moms for Liberty members.
These plaintiff organizations have extensive individual and collective membership rosters across the country. With the start of the 2024-2025 academic year (and resulting need for clarity) fast approaching, we took a look at what this expansive order means for schools when it comes to implementing the 2024 Title IX final rule.
In order to determine the scope of the Kansas injunction, the order required each plaintiff organization to "file a notice in the record identifying the schools which their members or their members’ children, as applicable, attend." Those notices — encompassing more than 400 K-12 schools and nearly 700 higher education institutions — were recently published in the court record by Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United.
Notably, Moms for Liberty has not produced a school-level list, opting instead to produce a list of counties in which its members or their minor children reside. The organization explained: "Attempting to obtain the specific schools that the children of over 130,000 members attend would place an immeasurable administrative and time burden on Moms for Liberty." In its motion to revise the preliminary injunction order, Moms for Liberty asked the court to "revise its stay/preliminary injunction order so as to enjoin Defendants from enforcing the Final Rule against any K-12 school in any county in which the child of a member of Moms for Liberty resides." Moms for Liberty’s list is available here.
If your school appears on one of the plaintiff organizations' membership lists, the 2024 Title IX final rule is enjoined at your school. This is true even if your school is located in a state that is awaiting a ruling on an injunction request in your jurisdiction or your state didn’t challenge the 2024 regulations (and therefore would otherwise be implementing them on August 1).
If your particular school doesn’t appear on one of the plaintiff organizations' membership lists, you may nonetheless be subject to a statewide injunction enjoining implementation of the 2024 regulations. If your state has received an injunction, your Title IX staff should begin the school year under the 2020 regulations. If your state hasn’t asked for an injunction and your school isn’t on one of the above lists, your Title IX staff should plan to begin the school year under the 2024 Title IX regulations as planned. If your state hasn’t received a decision on its injunction request and your school isn’t on a list, your school should proceed under the 2024 regulations unless and until the injunction is decided.
[View source.]
