A district court judge in Tennessee ruled that both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Education lack the ruling-making authority to force states to allow kids with gender identity disorder to compete on athletic teams inconsistent with their biological sex. This is a huge win for state’s rights, women’s rights, and the Constitution. The question now is whether the Supreme Court will have the courage to take this decision to its logical conclusion when it comes to the administrative state’s chronic overreach.

The Supreme Court has twice ruled that federal agencies overreached themselves. It first did so almost a year ago when it put an end to the CDC’s eviction moratorium. It did so again last week when it held that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. In neither case did the Court have the authority to declare that, under the Constitution, federal agencies have no legislative authority whatsoever, but it’s creeping ever closer.

Perhaps those two decisions gave U.S. District Court Judge Charles Atchley Jr., a Donald Trump appointee in Tennessee, the courage to rule as he did. The AP explains:

A judge in Tennessee has temporarily barred two federal agencies from enforcing directives issued by President Joe Biden’s administration that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces.

U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. in an order on Friday ruled for the 20 state attorneys general who sued last August claiming the Biden administration directives infringe on states’ right to enact laws that, for example, prevent students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people.

Image: Will Thomas next to an actual woman. YouTube screen grab.

The really big thing standing in the way of a total victory on this specific issue—requiring schools to accept mentally ill young people like Will Thomas onto sports teams that do not align with their biological sex—is Justice Neil Gorsuch. In an utterly moronic and unforgivable move, he read “sexual orientation” into the Civil Rights Act. Of course, when Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act, the word “sex,” was manifestly referring to men and women, not to people who suffer from gender dysphoria and assert a sex different from their biological reality.

Had Gorsuch not been a moron, it would have been up to Congress—the people’s representatives—to amend the Civil Rights Act to bring in sexual orientation if the people so wish. Now, though, the LGBT camel’s nose has long since entered the tent. To the extent transgenderism is read into the Civil Rights Act, and the EEOC and DOE are charged with ensuring that people’s civil rights are respected at work and school, the states will have a hard time of it. I doubt the Court will walk back Gorsuch’s decision but perhaps it will put even more brakes on agency powers.

JP Sears created an incredibly funny video following Will Thomas’s “wins” racing against women, but it does give you some context for what the Biden administration is pushing on our daughters: