Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This is Public Law No. 92‑318,86 Stat. 235,codified at 20 U.S.C. §§1681–1688.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States attorney general from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party,he previously served as United States senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017 before resigning that position to serve as attorney general in the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump fired Sessions in 2018 due to his inaction and recusal from the Russian collusion probes.
Gerald Wesley Moran is an American lawyer and politician who is the senior United States senator from Kansas,a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party,he was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 113th U.S. Congress,during which he led successful Republican efforts in the 2014 election,producing the first Republican Senate majority since 2006. Previously,he was a member of the United States House of Representatives,representing Kansas's 1st congressional district.
Elisabeth Dee DeVos is an American politician,philanthropist,and former government official who served as the 11th United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021. DeVos is known for her conservative political activism,and particularly her support for school choice,school voucher programs,and charter schools. She was Republican national committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000,and again from 2003 to 2005. She has advocated for the Detroit charter school system and she is a former member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education that is primarily focused on enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting schools from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race,color,national origin,sex,disability,age,or membership in patriotic youth organizations.
Eugene Scalia is an American lawyer who served as the 28th United States Secretary of Labor during the final 16 months of the Trump administration from 2019 to 2021. Scalia previously served as the United States Solicitor of Labor under President George W. Bush. He is a son of the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
Thomas Edward Perez is an American politician and attorney currently serving as senior advisor to the president of the United States and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs,holding both positions since June 2023. Perez previously served as the United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017),the chair of the Democratic National Committee (2017–2021),and United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (2009–2013).
Kenneth L. Marcus is an American attorney,academic,and government official. He is the founder and leader of the Brandeis Center. He was the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education from August 6,2018 through July 9,2020,after which he resumed his position at the Brandeis Center.
Robert Patrick Casey Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who is the senior United States senator from Pennsylvania,a seat he has held since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the dean of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation.
Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE) is an American advocacy group whose stated goal is to ensure fairness and due process for all parties involved in allegations of sexual misconduct on college and university campuses. FACE was started by Sherry Warner Seefeld and two other mothers who say their sons were falsely accused of sexual misconduct on their college campuses.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a US law passed in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. The law replaced its predecessor,the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB),and modified but did not eliminate provisions relating to the periodic standardized tests given to students.
Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex,gender identity,and transgender status. The Trump administration determined that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. The validity of the executive's position is being tested in the federal courts.
Philip H. Rosenfelt is an American lawyer and civil servant who served as the acting United States Secretary of Education from January 20,2021 to March 2,2021. He served in this same position under the Trump administration prior to the Senate confirming Betsy DeVos.
G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board was a court case dealing with transgender rights in the United States. The case involved a transgender boy attending a Virginia high school,who sued the local school board after he was forced to use girls' restrooms based on his assigned gender under the school board's policy. While the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of the student based on Obama administration policy related to Title IX protections,the election of Donald Trump changed the underlying policy. A pending hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States was vacated and the case was sent back to the Fourth Circuit.
Candice Erin Jackson is an American lawyer and former government official from California. She served in the Trump administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education,and the Office's Acting Assistant Secretary from April 2017 to July 2018. From July 2018 to January 2021,she served as the Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Education.
Since 2015,Township High School District 211,a public school district of the Chicago suburbs,has been the epicenter of multiple controversies surrounding its policies toward transgender student locker room access. Since January 2020,the district has implemented a policy of unrestricted locker room access corresponding to the gender identity of each student.
The Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism,officially Executive Order 13899,is an executive order announced on December 10,2019,and signed the next day by U.S. President Donald Trump. The said purpose of the order was to prevent antisemitism by making it easier to use laws which prohibit institutional discrimination against people based on race,color or national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people,including opposition to Israel uniquely as a Jewish nationstate without opposition to other nation-states. The definition of antisemitism which is used in the executive order was written by the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance,which defines it as,"...a certain perception of Jews,which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property,toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."
Lara Bazelon is an American academic and journalist. She is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal &Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics. She is the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles. Her clinical work as a law professor focuses on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.
