State Superintendent, Attorney General Challenge New Title IX Rules With Lawsuits

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Two separate lawsuits have been filed against the U.S. Department of Education in regards to new Title IX rules.

Early Monday afternoon, State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced the Oklahoma State Department of Education was suing the federal agency, the first and only state education department to do so independently.

Just a few hours later, Oklahoma State Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Both lawsuits deal with the new Title IX rules, and have similar arguments.

Drummond said the rules created an unconstitutional reworking of Title IX protections for women.

“The Department attempts to make these drastic and detrimental changes while relying on a Supreme Court case that has no connection to Title IX. Perhaps worst of all, implementation of the Final Rule would serve to isolate and deny the group of athletes that the statute was originally designed to promote and protect – female athletes,” Drummond noted in a press release.

On April 26, the U.S. Department of Education revised Title IX to include transgender entitlements for participation in women’s sports.

“Title IX was designed to ensure women had the guarantee of sex equality in education and an environment free from discrimination, but this rewriting – rooted in radical gender theory that ignores biological reality – has set back the cause of civil rights for women by generations,” Walters said in his news release.

Both lawsuits seek to stop the Title IX final rule enforcement.