by Tom Joyce, for The Center Square
Attorneys General from Vermont, 18 other states, and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief this week with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a class-action case titled Hunter v U.S. Department of Education.
The 19-state coalition, led by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, filed the brief based on their interpretation of Title IX, a law that prevents sex discrimination in federally funded schools.
The brief argues that a 2020 rule change regarding how the government interprets Title IX is invalid.
The politicians support students who filed a lawsuit to oppose implementing a religious exemption for parts of the law.
“When Congress enacted Title IX, it included a narrow exemption for schools controlled by religious institutions that have tenets incompatible with Title IX,” a press release from Rosenblum’s office said. “However, during the Trump administration, the Department of Education used administrative rulemaking to vastly expand this narrow religious exemption.”
A new rule that came under the Trump administration made it more difficult for students to tell which schools claim a religious exemption, Rosenblum’s office claimed in the release.
The Department of Education got rid of a requirement that schools tell the Office for Civil Rights in writing that they plan to invoke a religious exemption.
“During the Trump administration, his Department of Education gutted protections for women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other classes of students that had been in place for four decades,” Attorney General Rosenblum said. “Title IX needs to be strengthened, not systematically weakened. Students ought to know before they get to campuses whether their academic institutions will protect their rights or undermine them.”
The Attorneys General said they want students to know if their school is claiming a religious exemption into such matters before such an incident occurs.
They wrote in the brief that students “…should not have to wait until after they become a victim of discrimination to learn that their school considers itself exempt from Title IX’s anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-retaliation rules. Nor should schools be allowed to wait to assert their exemption from Title IX until after a complainant comes forward with an allegation.”
Categories: National News
Sounds like the targeting of religious schools to me. If a student wants to know if the school is taking an excemption of Title IX all they have to do is ask before enrolling. If that is too difficult then the state should just require the school to notify the Office for Civil Rights like they had done before the Department of Education dropped it. By opening this up again I will just guarantee that religious schools will have less say so on what they can do and teach. Maybe they should follow our Constition which kept the government, religion and schools separate from the state! Of course that’s not the socialists way!
Is it surprising to anyone that Vermont’s Leftist/Marxist, Anti-Constitutional Attorney General has joined another lawsuit to spend more of our state tax dollars to try and take away Vermont Citizen Rights/Freedoms?
Here is The Oath required to be taken by ALL elected officials in the State of Vermont, including the present Attorney General:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will be true and faithful to the State of Vermont and that I will not, directly or indirectly, do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or Government thereof. Under the pains and penalties of perjury.
Freedom of Religion is a basic Constitutional Right. Therefore, the Vermont Attorney General is violating her Oath of Office in seeking to act injurious to our Vermont Constitution.
The Vermont Attorney General should be charged with perjury under Title 13: Crimes and Criminal Procedure – Chapter 065:
Perjury – Section 2904 – False swearing; false declaration
(a) A person whom an oath is required by law, who willfully swears falsely in regard to any matter or thing respecting which such oath is required, shall be guilty of perjury and punished as provided in section 2901 of this title.
The punishment for perjury shall be imprisonment not more than 15 years or a fine of not more than $10,000.00, or both.
Tyrants Claim Freedom to Kill Freedom Yet, Keep Freedom for Themselves.
This effort stems from the United Nations, see the Human Rights Council, fifty-third session, 19 June-14 July 2023, Agenda Item 3, summary report. Freedom of religion or belief, and freedom from violence and desctimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Gender identity rights, including comprehensive sexual education, is a UN sustainable development goal. Everything that is occuring socially and politically is to bring the US into compliance. I recommend reviewing this document (A_HRC_53_37_A). I have includrd item 43 from this document for reference below. Furthermore, Canada just put out a statement informing Canadians that certain states in the US are not safe for the LGBTQ committee to visit because they passed legislation banning minors from receiving “gender affirming care”. As I stated earlier, everything that is occuring is a result of our leaders bringing the country into compliance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ESG.
Religious exemptions
43. As States have advanced their recognition of the rights of LGBT people to be free from violence and discrimination, calls for “religious-based exemptions” from laws guaranteeing equality for LGBT persons have increased. Some individuals, organizations and even corporations have sought to exempt themselves from complying with regulations that prohibit discrimination by arguing that their religious freedom would be unduly burdened if required to perform certain activities that do not align with their beliefs.
Thanks for the information Christine. Those of us who are paying attention know about the global agenda of the anti-American, elitists.
As a Constitutional Republic, our United States Constitution along with our individual state constitutions are the foundations and supreme law of our United States of America. Federal level, state level and local level elected government officials have worked hard to ignore, usurp and deny our United States Federal and State Constitutions.
It is our Constitutional Duty as United States Citizens to speak out and act to hold ALL of our elected officials accountable. Our Constitutional Republic form of government does not work otherwise. In Vermont, (Article 6 – Vermont Constitution) our local and state level governments are a good place to start.
While the elitists may be focused on a global agenda, let’s remember that our United States and state constitutions are firmly in place and still exist as our foundations and principles. As citizens, we need to have boldness and courage while focusing our efforts on using our constitutional rights and freedoms; to save our United States Constitutional Republic; no matter what the global minded elitists do.
How does Prop 5 re: amending the Vermont constitution factor into this?
Another reminder — don’t take fed $. In any form. Keep your schools 100% private. The minute you take fed $, they can/will ultimately dictate it all. You’ll then have a bunch of smaller govt schools that think they are private.
Complete trap. Article below. Alex newman also has a 48pg document detailing this at length.
https://thenewamerican.com/print/vouchers-school-choice-trap/
My thoughts exactly. This holds true in every sector of society. All federal subsidies come with strings attached, and if you try to opt out…?
The State Attorney Generals and Secretaries of State are now the enforcement arm of the installed Federal regime. There is no such thing as soverign states or State rights when any State branch goes out of their way to collude with others to subvert the US Constitution under the orders (and compensation) of the Federal government. The lines are crossed and blurred on purpose and they will stop at nothing to gain complete totalitarian control.
Title IX is a Federal civil rights law that was passed during the Nixon administration as part of the 1972 Education Amendments. Its main aim is to prevent sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding, such as higher education institutions, local school districts, museum programs, and libraries. These institutions must provide equal treatment across all areas of work, to both students and employees. Otherwise, they risk losing federal funding for not complying with federal law.
Please see my post and commentary on the impact international entities have on US policies, such as the Human Rights Council. As according to this entity LGBTQ rights supercede religious rights. This is why they want to remove religious exemptions. In addition, this entity claims that denying minor children gender affirming care is a violation of LGBTQ rights. This is a strange argument seeing that these children are not part of the LGBTQ committee. What about parental rights? What about the rights of a minor/child to not be propagandized and socialized via peer pressure from trusted adult figures like school counselors and teachers into changing their gender. These children also have the right to develop gender through their natural, predetermined genetic programming.
Really Mr. Searles ……. this is about Sex-based discrimination?
The article said “protections were gutted for women.” Is that for real biological women or pretend women? Who’s protecting biological women?
This is really about eliminating the Freedom of personal and individual beliefs. If I believe a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl based on their in born body parts and chromosomes, I must be punished OR eliminated. I must be forced to believe distorted, unscientific, delusional, lies that greatly damage human lives, especially children.
The Marxist/Leftist Overlords want to make sure no school exists that thinks, believes and acts apart from their twisted, depraved and immoral lies.
Where are the parents in this equation. Bureaucrats have garnered too much Power. Parents still have significant rights spelled out in the 1974 Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Schools that take federal money (mostly all of them) are required to get permission from parents if they teach anything more than academics. CRT or gender affirmation discussions in the classroom require the approval of parent. check out http://www.aflegal.org
Thank you Eric for providing the link, as your commentary supports my response to David Sears of Rutland.