Judge exempts 7 Mississippi universities from revised Title IX rule

A federal judge has temporarily excused seven universities and community colleges in Mississippi from complying with the Biden Administration’s revised Title IX rule that expanded protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant and parenting students. 

The state of Mississippi has been exempt from the new rule, which is set to take effect Aug. 1, since it worked with several Republican states earlier this year to successfully obtain a temporary injunction. 

But now, seven colleges and universities in Mississippi, including the University of Mississippi and Mississippi College, will be subject to an additional injunction following a Kansas judge’s ruling on what one expert called a “clever legal gambit,” because it applied to any campus that has one of three conservative education groups.

In that case, Kansas sued to block the new rule along with three conservative education groups, including Young America’s Foundation and Moms for Liberty. The judge’s temporary injunction was broadened beyond Kansas to any school, college or university campus where those organizations have a chapter — all told, more than 670 institutions across the country, according to Inside Higher Ed. 

The Biden Administration is seeking to contest the ruling, Inside Higher Ed reported.

The seven universities and colleges in Mississippi with chapters of those three groups are Holmes Community College, Pearl River Community College, Millsaps College, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi, according to court filings.

Through university websites, Mississippi Today confirmed there are Young Americans for Freedom chapters at MSU and Ole Miss. 

Officials in some conservatives states vowed to defy the new Title IX rules shortly after they were announced, citing state laws banning trans athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Mississippi passed such a ban in 2021.

In Mississippi, USM “has not received any guidance on this issue from any outside state entity,” a university spokesperson, Brittney Westbrook, wrote in an email.

“Preparations have been made to comply with the revised policies should the temporary injunction be dissolved,” she wrote.

Sid Salter, the vice president for strategic communications at MSU, wrote in an email that the university is waiting for guidance from federal and state officials and the courts before implementing any Title IX changes.

“Our consistent set point as a university is to fully comply with federal and state policies when those policies have been clearly established and shared with us,” Salter wrote.

Ole Miss had intended to revise its Title IX policies this summer but had suspended the plans when last month’s injunction was issued, wrote Jacob Batte, the university’s director of news and media relations, in an email.

Last year, Young Americans for Freedom threatened to sue Ole Miss, alleging the university was violating its members’ free speech rights after officials claimed YAF had held an unauthorized event in the Grove.

The chapter had constructed, then torn down, a mock Berlin Wall that was spraypainted with the words “safe spaces,” “microaggressions,” “Taiwan #1” and “chicken.”

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