The US Supreme Court on Friday denied the US government’s application to enforce a new Title IX rule that expands protections to LGBTQ+ students under the definition of “sex discrimination.”

The court unanimously agreed that federal court injunctions blocking three provisions in the Title IX rule related to gender identity should remain in effect while cases are decided at the federal appeals courts. The justices were split on whether the federal injunctions should be upheld fully or partially.

The five-justice majority denied the US government’s request and fully upheld the injunctions for several reasons. They found that the US government did not provide a sufficient basis to overturn the lower federal courts’ finding that the definitional changes to “sex discrimination” to include gender identity are “intertwined with and affect[t] many other provisions of the new rule.” The majority also held that the government did not indicate which other provisions of the rule are independent of “sex discrimination” and could be enforced. Finally, the court noted that the issue regarding the definition of “sex discrimination” will be decided shortly, with the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit scheduled to hear oral arguments in October.

Justice Sonia Sotomayer, writing for the dissent, would have partially upheld the injunctions. She found the preliminary injunctions to be overbroad because they prevented unrelated rules that protected other groups from taking effect. The dissent characterized the Title IX changes as “covering a range of discrimination matters, most of which do not reference gender identity discrimination.” Justice Sotomayer noted that the majority’s decision would prevent unchallenged protections “such as those governing preemployment inquiries about an applicant’s marital status or sex and prohibiting pregnancy discrimination,” which “include no reference to gender identity discrimination or hostile environment harassment,” from taking effect.

The ruling is the latest setback to the US Department of Education’s contentious Title IX interpretation, which follows US President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order on Title IX school protections. 26 states have now fully blocked the new Title IX protections from taking effect, and they will remain suspended until the merit of the injunctions is decided by the federal appeals courts. The next court hearings are the October oral hearings in the Sixth Circuit, a federal appeals court that hears appeals from the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The court will hear the federal government’s appeal of the Title IX injunction that was granted in Tennessee v. Cardona.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was landmark legislation that prohibited “sex-based discrimination” in schools or other education programs that received federal government funding. At the time of its enactment, gender identity and sexual orientation were not included in the definition, and the 2021 executive order and interpretation were actions to codify these protections for LGBTQ+ students.