The Trump administration announced Monday it’s investigating the University of Wyoming for alleged Title IX violations stemming from members of a campus sorority voting to admit a transgender woman in 2022, despite the school’s insistence that it doesn’t have a say in the membership of the private organization.

Critics of the admission of Artemis Langford have, until now, focused their efforts on the sorority itself: Kappa Kappa Gamma. Six of the sorority’s members sued the organization over the decision to admit Langford in 2023, but the case was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson, who ruled the government cannot interfere with how a private, voluntary organization chooses its members. 

The lawsuit did not name the University of Wyoming as a defendant. That didn’t stop the Trump administration, which has already challenged California and Maine over transgender policies, from pursuing an investigation into the Equality State’s lone, four-year public university.

“[The Office for Civil Rights] launched an investigation into the University of Wyoming after the university allowed a man to join a campus sorority,” the Department of Education announced in a statement Monday, indicating that, at least in the administration’s view, the onus was on the university to police KKG’s membership practices, a stance that at least one attorney who focuses on Title IX issues told WyoFile was legally questionable.

The Department of Education revealed the investigation in an announcement recognizing June as “Title IX Month.” (June is more prominently known as Pride Month, a time of recognition of the LGBTQ+ community.) The department said it would “highlight actions taken to reverse the Biden Administration’s legacy of undermining Title IX and announce additional actions to protect women in line with the true purpose of Title IX.”

The school, for its part, continues to maintain that Langford’s admission is a sorority matter. The University of Wyoming’s “position has been that it doesn’t control decisions about sorority and fraternity membership,” the university said in a prepared statement. “Appropriately, the university has not been a participant in litigation in federal court regarding the legality of the sorority’s decision to admit the transgender student.”

Title IX — a federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities — provides an exemption for the membership practices of social sororities and fraternities, according to attorney Melissa Carleton, who works with colleges and universities across the country on Title IX issues. 

The Department of Education claims that KKG lost its exemption as a sorority by deviating from single-sex membership practices by deciding to admit a transgender woman. 

Because the statute says social sororities “are outside the bounds of Title IX, it’s not clear the [Department of Education] has enforcement authority,” to define who can and cannot be a member, Carleton said. 

If UW is found to be in violation of Title IX, its federal funding could be on the line, Carleton said. 

“The Office for Civil Rights’ initiation of an investigation is not itself evidence of a violation of federal civil rights laws and regulations,” UW stated. “The university believes it has been and is in compliance with Title IX but intends to fully cooperate with the investigation and will work with the Office for Civil Rights to come into compliance if needed.”

How we got here

The announcement comes just days before a deadline in an ongoing civil lawsuit against UW’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter that began over two years ago. 

In March 2023, six members sued the sorority for allegedly breaking its bylaws, breaching housing contracts and misleading sisters when it admitted Langford, a transgender woman, by a majority vote of its members. 

The plaintiffs include Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar and Megan Kosar. 

Reasoning that the government cannot interfere with how a private, voluntary organization determines its members, a U.S. District Court dismissed the case in August 2023. 

The suing sorority sisters appealed the decision, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their arguments and gave the plaintiffs two options: amend their complaint or ask the lower court for a final judgment. 

“More than nine months after the Tenth Circuit issued its decision, they have neither amended their complaint nor notified us of their decision to ‘stand on the original complaint,’ which would allow them to receive a final judgment that could be appealed,” U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson wrote, ordering the plaintiffs to fish or cut bait by June 9. 

The plaintiffs had not taken court action as of press time. 

The plaintiffs have, however,  developed a direct connection with the Trump administration since their initial complaint. 

May Mailman, who previously worked as their attorney, joined the White House in January as deputy assistant and senior policy strategist to President Donald Trump. 

During the time that Mailman represented the plaintiffs, she worked as legal director of the Independent Women’s Forum, a DC-based, right-wing policy group that attached itself to the case. Several of the plaintiffs now serve as “ambassadors” for the organization and can be booked for speaking events.

“With the help of Independent Women, the University of Wyoming sorority sisters have been standing up for sisterhood and to keep sororities female ever since. Their advocacy footprint has expanded reaching sorority women nationwide,” the organization said in a press release shortly following the Department of Education’s announcement. 

Langford never lived in the sorority house on campus. In a statement to WyoFile, her attorney said her client did not know what prompted the Trump administration to launch an investigation now. 

“After Ms. Langford’s sisters voted her into the sorority, some filed a Title IX complaint about her admission. Ms. Langford does not know who those sisters were,” her attorney, Rachel Berkness, said in a statement that noted the complaint was eventually dropped. “After Ms. Langford celebrated her graduation from UW last month, she is surprised to learn that the Independent Women’s Forum, a political think tank that has promoted itself through litigation against Ms. Langford, is now advertising a new Title IX investigation.”