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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday that his state has filed a lawsuit against the administration after his Department of Education issued significant new rule changes to Title IX, accusing President Joe Biden of “abusing his constitutional authority.”
DeSantis took to social media to announce the lawsuit, stating that Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina were also joining the legal action. The lawsuit challenges the Biden administration’s alterations to Title IX, which include preventing schools from prohibiting biological males from participating in women’s sports, among other provisions.
“Florida is suing the Biden Administration over its unlawful Title IX changes. Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth,” DeSantis wrote. “We will not comply, and we will fight back against Biden’s harmful agenda.”
The Independent Women’s Law Center, Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, and Speech First, Inc. are also listed as plaintiffs in the complaint alongside the states, Fox News reported.
The Biden administration changed Title IX to redefine “sex” as “gender identity” and “sexual orientation.” It also mandates that schools must make sure that students use the “preferred pronouns” of their classmates. Failure to do so could result in loss of federal tax dollars.
Under the rule, schools are also prohibited from segregating or treating individuals differently based on sex, thereby permitting locker rooms and bathrooms to be designated according to gender identity, Fox reported.
On Monday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr declared the lawsuit, arguing that the change poses a threat to women and would undermine women’s sports.
“The Biden administration is destroying women’s sports by gutting commonsense provisions that protect female athletes and demanding that biological males be allowed to compete against females,” Carr said in a public statement. “Today we have taken action to defend women’s rights to fair competition, and we will keep fighting until we end this absurdity once and for all.”
According to the lawsuit, President Biden is accused of exceeding his authority by attempting to bypass Congress.
“While different administrations can have different policy views, they cannot override the text that Congress enacted in 1972 or overrule the binding precedent of this circuit. The Biden rule does both—to the detriment of the States, their schools, and their students. For a host of reasons, this new rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and should be set aside,” the lawsuit reads.
Carr has previously opposed Biden’s Title IX revision, which was initially introduced in July 2022. He urged the NCAA to safeguard women’s sports by rescinding the rule permitting biological males to compete in women’s sports. Carr has also initiated comparable legal efforts in backing Arizona and West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis and the state’s most famous resident, former President Donald Trump, have reportedly mended fences following their bitter breakup during the former’s campaign for the GOP nomination, which ended earlier this spring.
According to the Washington Post, the pair met privately in Miami, “breaking a years-long chill between the presumptive Republican nominee and his onetime chief primary rival.”
The Post reported that allies facilitated the meeting to foster a potential détente between the two. According to individuals familiar with the matter, Trump’s advisers are optimistic that DeSantis will leverage his donor network to assist in raising substantial funds for the general election. These sources, like others interviewed for the story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.
“The pair met for several hours and DeSantis agreed to help Trump. The meeting was friendly, according to a person with direct knowledge,” the Post said.
DeSantis built a broad network of affluent supporters during his campaign, whose aid could prove invaluable in helping Trump narrow the money gap with President Joe Biden and Democrats. Additionally, the Florida governor enjoys popularity among certain Republican voters who may be weary of Trump.
There’s also an incentive for DeSantis to forge a closer bond. Sources close to DeSantis have indicated that maintaining a strained relationship with Trump, especially as he looks toward his political future, is not sustainable, the Post report noted further.
