Per the Maryland Office of the Attorney General: Attorney General Brown today joined a coalition of 19 Attorneys General in filing filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a class-action case, Hunter v US Department of Education, supporting arguments that a 2020 rule adopted towards the end of the previous federal administration is invalid. Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded schools, requires that schools act to prevent discrimination and harassment on campus.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of students opposing the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) implementation of a new regulation governing Title IX’s religious exemption from antidiscrimination laws. The new regulation significantly weakened protections from discrimination on religious grounds. When Congress enacted Title IX, it included a narrow exemption for schools controlled by religious institutions that have tenets incompatible with Title IX. However, during the previous administration, the DOE used administrative rulemaking to vastly expand this narrow religious exemption.