A Tennessee Judge has ruled on Biden’s transgender school bathroom and athletics initiatives

A Tennessee Federal Judge blocked Joe Biden’s directive to publicly funded educational institutions, which would require them to allow transgender staff and students to use the bathroom that matches the gender they identify as, and which also would allow them to join sports teams of their “gender identity.”

Trump-appointed Judge Charles Atchley Jr. of Eastern Tennessee blocked the overreaching Biden directive after 20 GOP Attorney Generals sued.

The suing Attorney Generals made the argument that Biden’s directive clashed with state laws. Many of these states had passed laws that disallowed transgender people from using the school bathrooms opposite their biological sex or gender. Therefore, Biden’s directive is seen as an overreach that disempowered states.

Judge Atchley’s opinion states that the impacted states “cannot continue regulating pursuant to their state laws while simultaneously complying with Defendants’ guidance,”

The Defendants in question are the Biden Justice Department, Department of Education, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The argument made by the plaintiffs was that these Biden institutions improperly interpreted the SCOTUS ruling in Bostock v Clayton County to justify their directive.

In that 2020 case, the Supreme Court ruled that workplace sex discrimination should also be applied to gender identity and sexual orientation in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Still, they also explicitly stated that they were not deciding on if “sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes’ violate Title VII.”

This ruling by Judge Atchley represents a victory for women’s safety and women’s athletics across the nation, as the transgender directive was in direct conflict with the interests of both.