Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin joins multi-state suit seeking to block Biden administration Title IX rule

Attorney General Tim Griffin of Arkansas and Missouri Attorney General Bailey announced onstage that they and other state attorneys general have filed suit in the Eastern District of Missouri to challenge the Biden administration's recent Title IX rule change.

Griffin told reporters the coalition comprises about six states and said the suit rests on multiple legal theories: statutory-construction arguments that the administration has misread Title IX, First Amendment protections against compelled speech, the major questions doctrine and arbitrary-and-capricious review of administrative action. "I could tell you that, we're gonna win this suit," Griffin said.

General Bailey, a co-lead in the litigation, said the administration "is perverting the plain text of the statute in favor of a radical transgender ideology" and described what he called direct harm to states and private plaintiffs. He said parts of the federal rule would have the effect of nullifying state laws designed to protect women's sports and other state-level protections.

High-school athlete Amelia Ford, who identified herself as a varsity basketball player, said the rule would allow boys who "identify as a girl" to enter girls' locker rooms, bathrooms and sports teams and said she joined the lawsuit to preserve privacy and fair competition. "You don't just become a girl by what you feel or by what you think," Ford said.

Reporters asked why the litigation emphasizes athletics when Title IX does not explicitly mention sports; Griffin said athletics are a "natural outflow" of the rule's effects and cited a recent Division III track meet example in New York. Bailey and Griffin said the complaint seeks to block portions of the rule that they say upset settled legal expectations and would preempt state statutes such as Missouri's Save Women's Sports Act.

Bailey said the complaint "goes beyond just athletics" and targets the entire Title IX rule where it is unconstitutional or seeks to nullify state law. Bailey added the coalition is seeking a stay on enforcement of the federal rule to protect women and girls while the litigation proceeds.

Griffin described the effort as preemptive: he said state attorneys general need not wait for reported harms to begin litigation and emphasized that remedies and any protections for students who lose access to teams or facilities will depend on the facts of individual cases. The officials said they filed in the Eighth Circuit because the joining states fall within that federal circuit.

The attorneys and Amelia Ford declined to provide additional factual examples from Arkansas during the press conference, and Griffin said the number of joining states was "for a total of 6 states, I think is what we have now." The announcement closes with the officials saying they will press for court relief to halt or change the federal rule so existing state laws can remain in effect.