The Women's Student Union v. U.S. Department of Education
- Edward Chen
- 3:21-cv-01626
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In The Women’s Student Union v. U.S. Department of Education, Judge Chen denied the Department’s request to pause the case for 60 days.
The Women’s Student Union and the U.S. Department of Education. The case was not paused; the Department had to respond to the complaint within 14 days, and the scheduled July 15, 2021 proceedings remained in place.
What happened
The Women’s Student Union challenged 2020 Department of Education regulations that it said weakened federal protections under Title IX for students experiencing sexual harassment and discrimination. The Department asked to pause the case while it reviewed those regulations after an executive order from President Biden.
The Union opposed the pause, arguing that the Department’s review could take longer than 60 days. The court agreed, noting that the Department had indicated formal rulemaking with public notice and comment would be required, and that the review might not lead to any change in the regulations.
Judge Edward M. Chen denied the Department’s motion for a 60-day stay. He ordered the Department to respond to the complaint within 14 days and kept the scheduled July 15, 2021 case-management conference and hearings on intervention motions unchanged.
The detailed version
- The Women's Student Union v. U.S. Department of Education · No. 3:21-cv-01626
- Edward Chen
- June 18, 2021
Background
The Women’s Student Union (WSU) brought this action under the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing challenges to agency action. WSU seeks to set aside 2020 Department of Education regulations concerning protections under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for students who experience sexual harassment and discrimination in public schools.
The Department of Education moved to stay, or pause, the case for 60 days while it reviewed the challenged regulations. The motion followed President Joseph Biden’s executive order directing the Department to review the regulations and consider whether they should be suspended, revised, or rescinded. Texas and three groups also filed motions to intervene, meaning they sought to become parties in the case; those motions were scheduled for a July 15, 2021 hearing.
The parties’ positions
The Department sought the stay while conducting its review. WSU argued that the review could take months and therefore would likely last longer than the requested 60 days.
Court’s reasoning
The court agreed with WSU. It relied on an April 6, 2021 letter from the Department stating that formal rulemaking, including notice and an opportunity for public comment, would be required to determine whether to change or add to the Title IX regulations. The court said that this process would almost always take longer than 60 days and noted that the Department had previously taken 18 months to issue the regulations.
The court also found that the executive order required review but did not guarantee that the regulations would be rescinded, suspended, or revised. Because the regulations remained in effect, the court concluded that WSU could be prejudiced by a stay, especially if the Department later sought to extend it.
Ruling and next steps
Judge Edward M. Chen denied the Department’s motion for a 60-day stay. The Department was ordered to respond to the complaint within 14 days. The initial case-management conference and hearing on the intervention motions remained scheduled for July 15, 2021, and the briefing schedule for those motions was unchanged. The order disposed of Docket Nos. 44 and 47.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.