US Supreme Court, for now, blocks expanded protections for transgender students in some Republican states

Washington: The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily continued to block Education Department rules intended to protect transgender students from discrimination based on their gender identity in several Republican states that had mounted challenges.

The emergency order allowed rulings by lower courts in Louisiana and Kentucky to remain in effect in about 10 states as litigation moves forward, maintaining a pause on new federal guidelines expanding protections for transgender students that had been enacted in nearly half the country Aug. 1.

The order came in response to a challenge by the Biden administration, which asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a number of Republican-led states sought to overturn the new rules.

The decision was unsigned, as is typical in such emergency petitions. But all nine members of the court said that parts of the new rules — including the protections for transgender students — should not go into effect until the legal challenges are resolved.

“Importantly,” the unsigned order said, “all members of the court today accept that the plaintiffs were entitled to preliminary injunctive relief as to three provisions of the rule, including the central provision that newly defines sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The decision handed a victory to the Republican-led states that had challenged the rules. A patchwork of lower court decisions means that the rules are temporarily paused in about 26 states.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the liberal wing and Justice Neil Gorsuch, issued a partial dissent arguing that the court should have allowed other, undisputed parts of the new regulation to go into effect immediately.

The attorney general of Tennessee, one of the states challenging the regulation, welcomed the outcome. “This is a win for student privacy, free speech and the rule of law,” Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement.

Critics said the order erased crucial safeguards for young people.

“It is disappointing that the Supreme Court has allowed far-right forces to stop the implementation of critical civil rights protections for youth,” said Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy for the Human Rights Campaign.