New federal court rulings are narrowing the Biden administration\u2019s enforcement of a rule for protecting LGBTQ students from discrimination and allowing critics to limit it even further school by school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A federal judge in Missouri blocked enforcement of the rule<\/a> in six additional states, bringing the total to 21. The decision Wednesday from Senior U.S. District Judge Rodney Sipple, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, applies in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It comes just a week before the rule is to take effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sipple\u2019s ruling followed one last week by U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Kansas, who blocked enforcement in that state, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming but also in individual schools and colleges across the U.S. with students or parents who are members of three groups opposing the rule. Broomes, an appointee of President Donald Trump, gave one group, Moms for Liberty, an extra week \u2014 until Friday \u2014 to submit its list of affected schools and said it could include ones for members who joined the group after his initial July 2 order.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican officials seeking to roll back transgender rights hailed Sipple\u2019s ruling as a victory for cisgendered girls and women, having framed the issue as protecting their privacy and safety in bathrooms and locker rooms. They\u2019ve also argued the rule is a ruse<\/a> to allow transgender females to play on girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports teams, but Sipple said it would not apply to athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYet again a federal court has stopped the Biden-Harris administration from going around Congress to implement a ridiculous, nonsensical, and illegal election-year move,\u201d Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffith said in a statement. \u201cAnd it comes just in time before the start of the new school year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moms for Liberty had told Broomes in a court filing earlier this month that its members have students in tens of thousands of schools across the U.S., many in Democratic-led states supporting the rule. Also, judges in Alabama and Oklahoma have yet to rule in lawsuits filed by those states and Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n