The Biden administration claimed the rule wouldn't permit biological men to compete in women's sports, but many experts disagreed
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 Friday to reject a Biden administration emergency request to enforce portions of a new rule that includes protections from discrimination for transgender students under Title IX.
The request would have permitted biological men in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and dorms in 10 states where there are state-level and local-level rules in place to prevent it.
The sweeping rule was issued in April and clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions."
The rule took effect Aug. 1, and, for the first time, the law stated that discrimination based on sex includes conduct related to a person’s gender identity.
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Sprinklers water the lawn in front of the U.S. Supreme Court April 29, 2024. (Getty Images)
More than two dozen Republican attorneys general sued over the rule and argued it would conflict with some of their state laws that block transgender students from participating in women’s sports.
The Biden administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that Biden's claims it would not result in biological men participating in women's sports weren't true and that the proposal would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports.
The court's decision Friday struck a blow to the Biden administration's ongoing efforts to protect transgender inclusion.
"On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule," the court’s unsigned order states.
President Biden during the White House Creator Economy Conference in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Aug. 14, 2024. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissented, agreeing with the three liberal justices and the Biden administration that the lower court rulings were "overbroad."
Earlier this week, a group of 102 female athletes and 26 states petitioned the Supreme Court to take up a challenge over state laws that ban transgender women from competing against biological female athletes, according to a filing obtained by The Washington Times.
The petitioners argued that physical fitness tests demonstrate that there is a difference between men and women at every age.
"A growing number of women and girls have been facing the humiliating and damaging experience of being forced to compete against males who identify as transgender in the women’s sports category," the athletes’ filing states.
"It is hard to express the pain, humiliation, frustration and shame women experience when they are forced to compete against males in sport. It is public shaming and suffering, an exclusion from women’s own category."
Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson attend a private ceremony for retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before public repose in the Great Hall at the Supreme Court Dec. 18, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)
Several other high-profile figures in sports have spoken out against the prospect of allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit explained Tuesday in an interview on OutKick’s "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich" that he "of course" didn't believe men belonged in women's sports.
"I’m done giving any s---s at all about any of it. It’s almost like there are two different sets of rules, and if you have a view that’s a little more traditional, or I’m a Christian guy, it’s like there is a different set of rules for that viewpoint," Herbstreit said. "It’s hard to just turn the other cheek time after time after time.
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Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
