The Biden administration raised eyebrows last year when it reinterpreted Title IX to ban discrimination based on gender expression as well as biological sex.

However, a federal judge moved this week to reverse the change, arguing that it is "fatally" tainted by legal flaws. 

Judge finds that the Department of Education lacked authority to expand Title IX

According to CNN, that decision was handed down on Thursday by Judge Danny C. Reeves, who presides over the Eastern District of Kentucky.

It came in response to a legal challenge which was brought by Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. A similar lawsuit was previously filed by Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana.

In his ruling, Reeves concluded that the Department of Education lacked authority to expand Title IX protections to characteristics beyond those of biological sex.

He stressed that there is no reference to gender identity in the 1972 legislation and denounced efforts to include it as being an "attempt to bypass the legislative process and completely transform Title IX."

Teachers cannot be compelled to use a student's preferred pronouns

What's more, the judge also found that a provision mandating that teachers use a student's preferred pronouns is unconstitutional.

"The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner," Reeves asserted.

He went on to explain that his decision would "simply 'cause a return to the status quo' that existed for more than 50 years prior to its effective date."

CNN pointed out how Reeves' decision was welcomed by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who praised it in a statement.

Ruling met with praise from former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos

He said the ruling was a "victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns."

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke up as well in a social media post, declaring, "The radical, unfair, illegal, and absurd Biden Title IX re-write is GONE."

The radical, unfair, illegal, and absurd Biden Title IX re-write is GONE. https://t.co/OwNdj1QMMn

— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) January 9, 2025

She went on to quote Reeves' words in a subsequent post, writing, "Put simply, there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination 'on the basis of sex' means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception..."