Courts Clash Over Trans Rights, Sex‑Ed Funding

A federal judge in Mississippi, Louis Guirola Jr., struck down a 2024 Biden‑era HHS rule that extended Section 1557 protections to bar discrimination against transgender people in federally funded health programs and insurers, finding the agency exceeded its authority. The rule had added gender identity to Title IX’s definition of sex discrimination and prohibited covered entities from refusing gender‑affirming care. Separately, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Oregon said she is likely to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from withholding PREP and SRAE sex‑education grant funds from states that include references to diverse gender identities, finding the policy appears discriminatory and inconsistent with the statutes that created the programs. At hearings Aiken challenged the Justice Department’s “medically accurate” rationale, saying diverse youth face pregnancy and STI risks and that the directive would effectively “edit transgender kids out” of curricula. In another development, a divided federal appeals court allowed federal deployment of National Guard troops to Portland, prompting a blistering dissent from Judge Graber who called the decision legally unsupported and harmful to state militia control and First Amendment rights.