The U.S. Department of Education this week formally withdrew updates made during the Joe Biden presidency to the federal law banning discrimination in education based on sex. Specifically, the Education Department is removing language that expanded Title IX protections to cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The changes also mark the official return of previous regulations, previously enacted during Donald Trump's first term, that significantly narrowed the types of sexual misconduct and harassment reports schools and universities must investigate.
Title IX is the federal law passed in the 1970s that banned discrimination based on sex in education. It's widely credited with making the United States a global leader in women's sports as well as forcing schools and universities to investigate reports of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.
Wrestling impresario turned federal education leader Linda McMahon announced the changes to Title IX earlier this week, which she said would "[reduce] confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions." The change is, in some ways, paperwork. As its own fact sheet notes, the federal agency already had been enforcing the pre-Biden version of Title IX, and several states never adopted the expand protections, instead fighting them in court. Ultimately, this week's move finally makes official what had already been widely felt: Title IX, once a groundbreaking piece of anti-discrimination legislation, is now a cudgel for the administration to wield at its will for political purposes.
The news isn't shocking. Under McMahon's leadership, the Education Department has gutted its enforcement division, which had enforced Title IX and other civil rights laws for decades across both Democratic and Republican presidencies. In recent years, the federal agency has largely used the landmark law to attack schools that allowed trans girls and women to compete in sports.
This is not something the administration is hiding; in fact, it brags about it. The department's press release announcing the rescinding of the Biden-era law concludes by listing all the actions it has taken to stop "harm to women and girls by restoring Title IX to its original meaning and intent." The vast majority of the cases listed involve trans students.
"While the administration is unlawfully eroding protections for trans students under the guise of 'protecting women and girls,' they are systematically weakening the very laws that keep students safe and schools accountable," Shiwali Patel, the National Women's Law Center's senior director of education justice, said in a statement. "'Protecting women and girls' means not limiting Title IX protections based on students’ reproductive traits and anatomy and enforcing Title IX to make sure schools are inclusive spaces that provide equal educational opportunity for all students."
In fact, the Trump administration announced this the same week that one of the biggest stories in the nation involves a university being sued in court by a former student who said she was gang raped by several members of a fraternity. The former Cornell University student said she reported the gang rape to law enforcement and Cornell in 2024.
A local district attorney recently said he believed at the time that "criminal charges were not appropriate" based on the woman's statement, but he would now look at presenting the case to a grand jury. As for Cornell, its student assembly is organizing a public hearing on sexual violence. The assembly issued a statement saying, "If students accused of participating in or witnessing sexual violence received lesser sanctions, Cornell should explain why." McMahon's tenure has been dedicated, in contrast, to how—demonstrating how these disparities are perpetuated, and to ensuring that they will continue to be. If the students do get any answer from Cornell, it will be because of public pressure—a force that even the strongest federal legalese still cannot stop.
