NWLC Seeks to Defend the Biden Title IX Rule

Why It Matters

On August 1, 2024, the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule went into effect, strengthening protections for student survivors of sex-based harassment and clarifying protections for LGBTQI+ and pregnant and parenting students. However, right-wing extremists and 26 states filed 9 lawsuits challenging the Biden rule before it went into effect, and NWLC and our partners filed numerous amicus briefs supporting the rule. Then, in early 2025, federal judges in two of the lawsuits—filed in Kentucky and Texas—struck down the Biden rule nationwide, thereby reinstating the Trump administration’s 2020 Title IX harassment rule. NWLC and our partners now seek to join the Kentucky and Texas cases to defend and reinstate protections for student survivors under the Biden rule and to block the dangerous Trump rule from being enforced.

Our Lawsuits

On February 28 and March 31, 2025, NWLC filed motions to intervene in the Kentucky and Texas cases on behalf of clients Jane Doe (an anonymous plaintiff) and the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) in order to defend the Biden Title IX rule’s protections for student survivors of sex-based harassment. 

Doe is a student survivor of sexual assault whose complaint was initially investigated by her school under the Biden Title IX rule (which did not require her to be cross-examined) but is now being investigated under the reinstated Trump Title IX rule (which requires her to submit to cross-examination by her rapist’s advisor). VRLC is an advocacy organization that represents student survivors, including Doe, in their schools’ Title IX investigations and has found its ability to obtain fair and accurate outcomes for its clients severely hampered by the return of the Trump rule. 

“If I had known that I would have to be cross-examined, I never would have reported to the University’s Title IX office in the first place.” – Jane Doe

Doe and VRLC seek to join the Kentucky and Texas cases so they can appeal the courts’ decisions striking down the Biden rule’s protections for student survivors. Doe intends to revive the Biden rule’s provisions that do not force survivors into cross-examination by their rapist’s or abuser’s advisor. VRLC also intends to revive dozens of other crucial Title IX protections so that schools can no longer dismiss complaints that don’t meet an unforgivingly narrow definition of “sexual harassment” or otherwise egregiously mistreat student survivors, as the Trump rule currently allows and—in many cases—requires. 

Relatedly, our partners at Public Justice have also filed motions to intervene in the Kentucky and Texas cases on behalf of their client A Better Balance to defend the Biden rule’s protections for pregnant and parenting students.