Trump scores win as judge dismisses Minnesota lawsuit over POTUS' anti-trans executive orders
WASHINGTON, DC: A federal judge on Monday, Aug 10, largely dismissed a Minnesota lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX, a legal victory for the administration as it tries to limit transgender athletes' participation in women's sports.
Minnesota is the only state currently challenging executive orders issued by Trump during his first year in office that say there are only two sexes and bar transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Supreme Court precedent factored into the ruling
The Trump administration has taken action to force school districts to end their trans-inclusive policies, including threatening to pull their federal education funding. Minnesota sued to stop the administration from pulling funds from schools in the state.
Minnesota District Chief Judge Eric Tostrud said in his ruling the state’s case is ripe, meaning the legal issue is clear and ready for a court to make a decision on.
But the state’s argument failed in proving the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets standards for how the federal government issues regulations, and the 10th Amendment, which reserves powers for the states.
“Minnesota will not face legal consequences unless and until a hearing is held in which the relevant agency finds that Minnesota is not in compliance with Title IX, or a court finds, in a civil enforcement action, that Minnesota is not in compliance with Title IX,” Tostrud wrote.
“Neither event has occurred here. The findings themselves impose no legal injury on Minnesota.”
The judge stressed that the administration has yet to act decisively on this issue, and ruled that the administration’s determinations that the Minnesota education agency’s trans-inclusive policies violate federal law, and its subsequent letters to the state, are invalid.
Additionally, Tostrud pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling this June to uphold state bans on trans athletes to support his argument. He said that while the high court did not decide whether states and schools may allow trans athletes to compete in women’s sports, “the Supreme Court’s determination that ‘sex’ in Title IX refers to biological sex provides at least some support for the Defendant’s interpretation of the statute.”
One claim survives, tied to $2.9 billion in funding
Even though this case has been dismissed, another one is still going on.
The Trump administration is asking the Minnesota District Court to decide that both the state's education department and the Minnesota State High School League have violated Title IX since they permit transgender girls to take part in sports and to use locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The lawsuit arose out of investigations carried out by the Education Department and the Health and Human Services Department.
“By filing that case, the United States affirmatively invoked the court’s jurisdiction seeking resolution of essentially the same issues at the core of this case,” Tostrud wrote. “It is difficult to understand how that case might be ripe, but this one is not.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement he was “pleased that a major constitutional claim against President Trump will move forward and I look forward to proving in court that the President violated the Constitution.”
