Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced on Tuesday that they are leading six states in suing the Department of Education (ED) due to the overhaul of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act. 

Court documents show that the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. 

The Biden administration has unveiled new rules aimed at safeguarding LGBTQ+ students and changing the ways in which sexual harassment and assault claims are adjudicated on campus. 

Skrmetti and Coleman are targeting new provisions that are part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the ED, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Biden to revamp those issued during the Trump administration.

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“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti said in a statement. 

“In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms,” Attorney General Skrmetti said.

“The Biden Administration’s new rule would rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk. It’s wrong, and we are joining our colleagues in Tennessee to lead this fight for our daughters, granddaughters, nieces and all the women of our Commonwealth,” said Attorney General Coleman.

Missing from the new rule, however, is a policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes competing against biological females.

Under the new rules, sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation. A school must not separate or treat people differently based on sex, except in limited circumstances, under the provisions and critics say that the change will allow locker rooms and bathrooms to be based on gender identity.

The Department of Educaation has unveiled new rules aimed at safeguarding LGBTQ+ students and changing the ways in which sexual harassment and assault claims are adjudicated on campus.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

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LGBTQ+ students who face discrimination will be entitled to a response from their school under Title IX, and those failed by their schools can seek recourse from the federal government.

The Department of Education sent Fox News Digital a statement saying that “the Department does not comment on pending litigation.”

“The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally-funded education,” the statement reads.

LGBTQ+ students who face discrimination will be entitled to a response from their school under Title IX, and those failed by their schools can seek recourse from the federal government. (iStock)

“As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally-funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations, and we look forward to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience.”

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Former Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has been cleared of ethics charges stemming from allegations that the one-time Democratic rising star abused her access to voter registration data to benefit herself and fellow Democrats.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Monday that Grimes legally accessed the data while “acting in the scope of her public duties” as secretary of state.

“It is unclear how the commission can penalize the commonwealth’s chief election official for having access to voter data, or downloading it to a flash drive when it has failed to identify any illegal or unethical use of such data,” Shepherd said in his order.

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Grimes had faced a $10,000 fine after the state Executive Branch Ethics Commission said that she committed ethics violations by improperly ordering the downloading and distribution of voter registration data. The judge’s reversal of the commission’s order means Grimes won’t have to pay the fine.

Jon Salomon, one of Grimes’ attorneys, said Tuesday that the ruling vindicated Grimes.

“Secretary Grimes should have never been investigated for simply doing the job that Kentucky voters twice elected her to do, and the court has appropriately cleared her of all charges,” he said in a statement.

The commission said Tuesday that it is reviewing the matter.

Grimes was seen as a rising political star when she was first elected secretary of state in 2011. She launched a high-profile challenge against longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014 but was soundly defeated. She rebounded to win reelection as secretary of state in 2015, when Republicans claimed most statewide offices. The only other Democrat to win that year was Andy Beshear, who was elected attorney general then and is now in his second term as governor.

The ethics commission’s allegations against Grimes stemmed from activity in 2015 and 2016. Grimes was accused of failing to follow government processes in downloading and sharing voter information.

She was accused of acting unethically by instructing her employees to download voter information onto flash drives while she was running for reelection and sharing voter registration information for state House districts, all without complying with open records rules or collecting fees.

Shepherd ruled that the allegations were “arbitrary and without the support of substantial evidence.” The judge said there is no law or regulation that prohibited her from accessing or sharing the information.

He noted that the long-running matter drew “exhaustive” investigations from the ethics commission and the state attorney general’s office, after which “there was no allegation concerning any substantive violation of any statute or regulation regarding the integrity of the voting rolls.”

Republican Michael Adams succeeded Grimes as Kentucky’s secretary of state. Adams’ office on Tuesday noted the changes made to state law in response to the allegations against his predecessor.

“Because of the scandals that preceded Secretary Adams in this office, the General Assembly in 2019 limited direct access to the voter file, and our administration has followed the letter and the spirit of the law,” Adams’ spokeswoman, Michon Lindstrom, said in a statement.

The judge also ruled that the ethics commission failed to meet the statute of limitations when bringing the claims against Grimes.

The commission’s charges followed a 2019 series from the Lexington Herald-Leader and ProPublica. The two news organizations published stories on Grimes’ conduct as secretary of state.

A western Kentucky man on death row for killing three children, raping their mother and setting their home ablaze has died, officials said Tuesday.

Kevin Wayne Dunlap, 51, died Sunday after being transported to a hospital from the Kentucky Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said. She said federal regulations prevented her from releasing any further information.

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Dunlap pleaded guilty in 2010 to attacking the woman in 2008 and killing her children at the home in Roaring Springs before burning it to the ground. A jury recommended a death sentence.

Dunlap approached the victim as she worked in the yard and asked to see the house, which was for sale, on Oct. 15, 2008. Once inside, he pulled a gun and zip-tied her hands and ankles. When the children came home, he tied them up and put them in a different part of the house.

The children killed in the attack were ages 5, 14 and 17. A medical examiner determined each of the children died from multiple stab wounds.

After being raped and stabbed, the mother faked her own death and escaped the burning home.

Defense attorneys sought to have the death sentence vacated, but the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld it. Justices found that a judge committed no errors in allowing Dunlap to admit to the killings and have a jury decide only if he would be condemned to death or face a lesser sentence.