Absent a preliminary injunction, the states argue, the female athletes are “stripped of Title IX’s protections by forcing them to compete against biological men.”
Asked about the brief, Minnesota Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Brian Evans in a statement called the accusations “merely a repetition of the far-right’s typical scaremongering and scapegoating of kids dressed up as an amicus brief.”
“It’s a shame for residents of these 19 states that their attorneys general are bullying vulnerable kids to score cheap political points, rather than helping people who need it,” Evans said, adding to his statement that the court filing will have no impact on the lawsuit and “does not matter.”
The filing by Iowa’s attorney general was signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. All of the states, with the exception of Kansas, have Republican governors.
The brief also comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s finding that Minnesota is in violation of Title IX over the MSHSL policy, to which federal officials ordered the state to make changes in 10 days. The deadline passed last week with no clear repercussions — though the state told the administration in a letter criticizing the investigation that it would not offer a “substantive response” to their demand, due to a lack of clarity and the federal government’s shutdown.
“As you know,” Minnesota Solicitor General Liz Kramer wrote, “if the federal government intends to follow the law, it would need to follow an extensive, multi-step administrative process before any federal funding to Minnesota education programs or activities could ever be terminated.”