Christian Schools Association Joins In Lawsuit Against Department Of Education

Image Credt: Learning Policy Institute / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Tennessee and 19 other Republican-led states, along with the nation’s largest Protestant Association of Christian Schools, are teaming up to try to halt a Biden administration executive order that seeks to “provide protection from discrimination for LGBTQ students” in public schools. 

2,000 schools and 60 colleges across the country make up the Association of Christian Schools International. They, along with 19 Republican states, are allowed to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the attorney general in Knoxville at the U.S. District Court against the U.S. Department of Education. 

The case comes after a June 2020 landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that expanded the legal definition of sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity in reference to employment. An executive order was signed by Biden after this ruling. 

Proponents of the lawsuit want to block the department from creating policies that would prohibit schools from receiving federal funding based on their student’s gender identity and sexual orientation.

The Supreme Court’s ruling led the Biden administration to instruct agencies to enact rules that would not allow discriminating against individuals or groups because of sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, the education department then issued “guidance documents” that would prohibit discrimination and also take action against those who violated the rules, including the loss of federal funding to the specific school. 

Republican attorney generals, including former Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, cried foul at this ruling. Many of these attorney generals were in states that had already passed legislation that appeared to be in violation of that guidance, including statutes that prohibited schools from allowing transgender youth to participate in girls’ sports and ban schools from allowing transgender youth from using restrooms that align solely with their chosen gender identity. 

The lawsuit argues that the education department failed to give states an opportunity to have a say on the issue and that the Biden administration was trying to skirt around state laws and the U.S. Congress’s authority to enact federal laws. 

The Association of Christian Schools International argues that transgender females are larger and stronger than biological females. They prohibit transgender females from participating in female athletics at all the schools and colleges within the association. They believe forcing their female athletes to compete against public school teams that include transgender females would provide an unfair advantage for the transgender teams.

The association litigation states, “Fifty years ago, Title IX of the Education Amendments paved the way for these athletes by ensuring that girls and women had the same opportunities to compete in interscholastic athletics as boys and men.”

In the litigation, the association argues there are “physiological differences between the biological sexes” that create “physiological advantages” for biologically male athletes. 

It continues, “But the U.S. Department of Education will curtail these gains – and reduce the advantages of sports for girls – through its unlawful re-interpretation of Title IX to permit boys who are biologically male to compete in girls’ athletic competitions if they claim a female gender identity,” the litigation continues. “In doing so, the government puts girls at a competitive disadvantage, increases their risk of injury, and creates an unfair playing field that deprives girls of the inherent benefits of athletics.”

“Permitting males to compete in girls’ or women’s athletic events does not make victory for girls and women more difficult; it makes victory over comparably talented and trained male athletes all but impossible for girls and women in most athletic competitions, because of inherent and biologically dictated differences between the sexes,” the intervenor lawsuit states. 

“No amount of testosterone suppression can eliminate male physiological advantages relevant to performance and safety,” the litigation continues. 

“For female athletes who train hard to be the best that they can be, the situation [the education department’s new rules] is neither fair nor safe,” the litigation states. It creates an uneven playing field for ACSI’s member schools’ female athletic teams by requiring them to compete against other public schools’ female athletic teams that include biological males.”

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. sided with the Republican attorneys general when this legal battle ensued by issuing an injunction that would temporarily block enforcement of the education department’s new rules. 

Atchley issued an order allowing ACSI to join the litigation earlier this week. There is no set trial date as of yet.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com