Court Upholds Religious Schools Title IX Exemption

A federal court in Oregon affirmed Thursday the validity of a Title IX Federal funding is allowed to religious universities even if they hold religious beliefs about marriage, sexual identity and gender.

A group of 40 LGBT individuals filed the 2021 lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to challenge an exception or loophole in Title IX that permits religious colleges to seek exemptions from the civil rights law’s restriction against sex-based discrimination.

Judge Ann Aiken from the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon found that the loophole is “one narrow exception” Title IX is a law created by Congress to protect religious organizations and to not interfere with their convictions.

“Exempting religiously controlled educational institutions from Title IX—and only to the extent that a particular application of Title IX would not be consistent with a specific tenet of the controlling religious organization—is substantially related to the government’s objective of accommodating religious exercise,” Aiken wrote in her ruling (PDF).

The LGBT group, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, the plaintiffs in the case, argued that the exemption violated the students’ equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution by treating them differently than other students due to their sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

It failed to prove discriminatory intent

The group claimed that they were mistreated at ahref=”https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-religious-schools”>religious schools, the judge found that the group failed to prove any discriminatory motivation by Congress in enacting the Title IX exemption in question.

“The Court cannot conclude that Plaintiffs’ assertion that ‘Congress enacted the religious exemption to permit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity,’ is sufficient,” Aiken wrote.

Aiken, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, also rejected their argument that the exemption violated the First Amendment’s restriction on the establishment of religion by Congress, stating that they didn’t prove the federal government, in contrast to schools, advanced religions.

“Plaintiffs provide no developed analysis or facts to shed light on those assertions or explain how Defendants have advanced religion through their own activities and influence,” Aiken wrote.

The U.S. Department of Justice supported the exemption, but acknowledged that it could violate Title IX.

The Religious Exemption Accountability Project stated that they are looking into appealing.

Title IX

Title IX of 1972’s Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law, prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial aid. Religious institutions can request exemptions in order to be consistent with their beliefs, regardless of whether they contradict Title IX.

The President Joe Biden, a Democrat, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance in June 2021 that interpreted sex-based discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity, which are fuzzier concepts.

This was done by the Biden administration citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County in Georgia in 2020. The Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination based on sex in the workplace, and uses similar language as Title IX, applies to discrimination against transgender and gay workers.

Therefore, the Education Department argued that the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision should be applied to Title IX. Title IX covers discrimination in federally funded educational institutions.

Caden Pearson is an Australian reporter. Contact him on [email protected]