A federal judge has blocked Joe Biden from forcing states to provide transgender medical care.

The nationwide ruling is the latest setback in Biden's effort to expand transgender protections using Title IX.

Mississippi judge Louis Guirola, a George W. Bush appointee, found Biden improperly broadened Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex.

Biden trans rule blocked

Back in 2016, the Obama administration interpreted the Affordable Care Act's Section 1557 - which derives its language from Title IX - to include "gender identity."

The Trump administration gutted the Obama rule, but Biden brought back Obama's approach, banning health programs that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of "sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.”

Republican states sued, accusing the Health and Human Services Department of placing "gender ideology over medical reality.”

Judge Guirola struck down the rule days before it was set to take effect on Friday. He found the administration was misusing Title IX and that Republican states would suffer "irreparable harm" from compliance costs or lost funding.

Twisting Title IX

The decision is only the latest setback in a broad federal push to expand Title IX's scope.

Biden's opponents say he is repurposing a law that protects women from discrimination to do something completely different and even contradictory to Title IX's purpose.

"Consequently, this Court cannot accept the suggestion that Congress, with a 'clear voice,' adopted an ambiguous or evolving definition of 'sex' when it acted to promote educational opportunities for women in 1972," Guirola wrote.

Mississippi governor Tate Reeves thanked the judge and said Biden "attempted to undermine Title IX by dramatically reinterpreting its meaning."

Biden shifts

A federal judge in Texas also blocked Biden's trans health care rule this week, in a separate case. The judge found Biden was trying "to impose a sweeping new social policy" by bending the law.

The White House took some of Biden's radical left supporters by surprise recently by stating it opposes transgender surgeries for minors. The administration still supports other forms of "gender-affirming care."

“These are deeply personal decisions and we believe these surgeries should be limited to adults,” the administration said.

Biden positioned himself as an ally of "trans youth" for much of his presidency. But he appears to be slightly moderating as he fights a fierce battle for re-election.