Christian schools and female athletes from Tennessee and Arkansas reportedly filed a motion against President Joe Biden's transgender mandate in an attempt to restore fairness in women's sports.
CBN News said the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has filed on Monday with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee a motion to intervene in behalf of three female athletes from Arkansas and the Association of Christian Schools International to join the case "State of Tennessee v. United States Department of Education."
The three athletes--Amelia Ford, Cate Ford, and Anna Scarborough-are said to be from a public school in Arkansas. While the Association of Christian Schools International, which was founded in 1978 with the goal of strengthening Christian schools, is comprised of schools that encompass around 500,000 students across the country.
According to the ADF, the intervenors aim "to provide equal opportunities for women by maintaining sex-separated sports" through the motion that was filed in line with the case.
The State of Tennessee v. United States Department of Education case was filed by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery together with 19 other states in September against the Biden Administration for its "unlawful interpretation of antidiscrimination laws" Title VII and Title IX and for its "federal regulatory overreach."
The said laws protect against discrimination on the basis of gender that the Department of Education defined in the context of gender identity or sexual orientation such that "biological men who identify as women" were given the right to compete in women's sports, among others.
The states of Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Okahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia are part of the plaintiffs to the case along with the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
In the motion for intervention, the Association of Christian Schools International and the three female athletes also claimed that the U.S. Department of Education's interpretation and released letter addressed to educators dated June 23 violate, as well as, Fact Sheet on confronting Anti-LGBTQ+ Harassment in Schools violate Title IX of the Constitution. The motion disclosed that the 20 states who filed the case accepted the intervention offered by the association and the athletes.
ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Bangert pointed out in a statement that girls deserve to compete equally in the playing field. Bangert said many are stepping up against Biden's redefinition of sex to suit the LGBTQ+ community. Bangert explained that the motion to intervene aims to protect female athletes' opportunities.
"Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field, and states, schools, and individuals across America are rightly stepping up to safeguard equal athletic opportunity for female students. The Biden administration's radical push to redefine sex in federal law has widespread impact and specifically threatens female athletes," Bangert said.
"This undermines one of the driving purposes of Title IX to promote equality for women in athletics, and it jeopardizes the safety of female athletes by allowing physically stronger, faster, and larger males to compete on women's teams," he added. "Our Constitution protects against this gross overreach of executive power, and the athletes and the Association of Christian Schools International that Alliance Defending Freedom represent are committed to protecting safe and fair opportunities for female athletes."
