New Jersey, California, and Pennsylvania lead multistate efforts to uphold protections for LGBTQ+ students in schools against gender-based harassment and discrimination.
NEW JERSEY – Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced that New Jersey, along with California and Pennsylvania, has co-led two amicus briefs in federal appellate courts to defend Title IX’s protections for LGBTQ+ students from gender-based harassment and sex discrimination. The briefs, supported by a coalition of states, seek to overturn a preliminary injunction that could affect schools in several states.
The amicus briefs were filed in response to lawsuits—Louisiana v. U.S. Department of Education in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit—challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s Final Rule on nondiscrimination in federally funded education programs. This rule extends Title IX protections to LGBTQ+ students and reverses a 2020 policy that had reduced these protections.