Columbia, South Carolina – In South Carolina, a years-long dispute over the meaning and reach of Title IX has reached its conclusion, with Attorney General Alan Wilson announcing that the state’s challenge to the Biden administration’s 2024 regulations has ended in victory.
Wilson said on June 1 that South Carolina and fellow plaintiffs dismissed their case after another federal court eliminated the challenged rule nationwide. The outcome means the Biden-era regulations never took effect in South Carolina schools, colleges and universities under the state’s legal challenge.
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At the center of the conflict was Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding. For decades, the law has been associated with expanded educational and athletic opportunities for women and girls, as well as protections against sex-based discrimination.
The U.S. Department of Education issued new Title IX regulations in April 2024, with an effective date of August 1, 2024. The rule expanded protections against sex discrimination to include discrimination connected to gender identity and sexual orientation. It also addressed how schools would handle sex-based harassment and access to sex-separated educational spaces.
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Supporters of the federal rule said it was needed to protect LGBTQ+ students, including transgender students, from discrimination in schools. Opponents, including Wilson and attorneys general from several states, argued that the administration had gone beyond the language and purpose of Title IX. They said the changes created conflicts involving privacy, speech and sex-separated facilities.
South Carolina joined the legal fight before the rule could be enforced in the state. According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, the challenged regulations would have required schools to permit bathroom use based on gender identity rather than sex and could have exposed students to punishment for expressing opposition to gender-identity policies.
Federal courts soon became the turning point. Injunctions blocked implementation of the rule in multiple states during 2024. Then, on January 9, 2025, a federal district court vacated the 2024 regulations nationwide. The U.S. Department of Education now states that, because of that court order, the 2024 Title IX regulations are not effective in any jurisdiction.
For Wilson, the conclusion of South Carolina’s lawsuit marked more than a procedural ending. It represented the result his office had sought from the start: preventing the federal rule from being applied to schools in the state.
“Title IX exists to protect women and provide an equal opportunity for women and girls in our society,” Wilson said in announcing the result.
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The attorney general argued that the 2024 rule would have changed Title IX at the expense of girls. He also described the case in personal terms, saying his efforts were shaped by his role as a father and by his commitment to protecting opportunities for girls in South Carolina and across the country.
The ruling does not end the national debate over gender identity, school policies or protections for transgender students. Those questions continue to appear in state legislation, court disputes and policy decisions across the country. In South Carolina, however, the result gives schools a clearer federal regulatory position: the Department of Education says the 2024 regulations are no longer in effect.
For Wilson’s office, the dismissal closes a chapter that began with resistance to a major federal policy shift and ended after the rule was removed nationwide. South Carolina’s challenge, joined with efforts from other states and organizations, helped ensure the disputed regulations did not govern schools in the Palmetto State.
The broader argument over Title IX may continue. But for now, Wilson is presenting the outcome as a defense of the law’s original protections for women and girls, and as a significant legal victory for South Carolina.
