On June 22, 2021, the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (“DOJ) issued a joint Fact Sheet addressed to elementary and secondary...more
Earlier this month, the Trump administration withdrew the Department of Justice’s prior position that Title IX of the Civil Rights Act prohibits schools and other covered institutions from discriminating on the basis of...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On March 6, 2017, the Supreme Court remanded a highly anticipated transgender rights case back to the Court of Appeals after the Trump Administration withdrew Obama era guidance regarding the rights of...more
The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education have withdrawn existing guidance on transgender students and issued a new Dear Colleague Letter calling into question whether Title IX requires that schools permit students to use...more
Rescission of Previous Administration’s Guidance Relating to Transgender Students - On February 22, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter rescinding the...more
On February 22, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) withdrew their May 13, 2016 “Dear Colleague” letter that provided guidance on steps to protect transgender students under Title IX of the...more
On February 22, 2017, President Donald Trump’s administration issued a two-page "Dear Colleague" letter that formally rescinded the Obama administration’s interpretation of transgender student rights as an extension of Title...more
On February 22, 2017, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter withdrawing the statements of policy and guidance issued by the Department of Education on January 7, 2015 and...more
Last week, the administration rescinded Obama-era federal guidelines interpreting federal anti-discrimination laws to require schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity....more
On February 22, 2017, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice ("Departments") withdrew statements of policy and guidance on transgender students and their use of school restrooms and locker rooms that were a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education jointly issued a “Dear Colleague” letter yesterday withdrawing and rescinding the Obama Administration’s prior guidance letters which instructed schools that...more
On February 22, 2017, one day before briefs were submitted to the Supreme Court in a case involving a transgender student in Pennsylvania, the Trump Administration, through the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department...more
On February 22, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice (“ED” and “DOJ,” respectively, and collectively, the “Departments”) issued a two-page Dear Colleague Letter to “withdraw and rescind” policy and guidance reflected...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) jointly issued a statement rescinding the guidance on transgender students’ rights under Title IX issued to school districts nationwide in May. The prior...more
There has been much speculation about the Trump administration’s position with respect to LGBTQ rights. We may now have our first glimpse. Just days after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General, the government has...more
Last week, the Justice Department withdrew the pending legal challenge that had sought to reverse the federal court decision blocking the implementation of the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy for public...more
On Friday, the Trump administration signaled that it will not defend the guidance given by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) last May on transgender students’ rights under Title IX of the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral argument in one of the high-profile challenges to the legality of the Dear Colleague Letter (“DCL”) jointly issued by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education on May 13,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In State of Texas v. United States, a District Court issued a nationwide injunction to enjoin the Department of Education and Department of Justice from enforcing their guidelines on accommodations for...more
A federal judge in Texas has dealt a serious blow to the Obama administration’s transgender school bathroom directive, barring the federal order which required schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms, locker...more
On May 13, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) addressing a school’s Title IX obligations regarding transgender students, and explaining how the U.S....more
On May 13, 2016, with much fanfare, the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Education jointly issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” [“DCL”] in order to provide guidance for school districts with...more
In a move that made headlines across the country, two federal government agencies issued a significant guidance document last week interpreting Title IX's requirements for protecting transgender students' rights....more