Federal court upholds religious schools’ exemption from Title IX
September 04, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Affirming a lower court decision, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of religious schools’ exemption from Title IX. The exemption is part of text of the 1972 law.
Title IX bars discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded educational institutions. In recent years, it has been expansively interpreted to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity—culminating in the Biden administration’s recent mandate that compels federally-funded non-religious schools to open bathrooms, locker rooms, and single-sex physical education classes to students based on their subjective gender identity.
The constitutionality of the religious exemption was challenged, in the words of the decision, by “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or nonbinary (LGBTQ+) students who applied to or attended religious institutions and alleged that they experienced discrimination on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.”
“We acknowledge that the discrimination LGBTQ+ individuals face (both on religious campuses and outside of them) is invidious and harmful,” Judge Milan Smith, 82, wrote in his decision. “However, the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause guarantees protection of those religious viewpoints even if they may not be found by many to be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible.”
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