A federal judge in Tennessee has blocked attempts by the Biden administration to expand the rights of transgender people by dictating  the obligations of schools, universities, and workplaces regarding dress codes, bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and use of preferred pronouns or names.

Ruling in a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of 20 states against the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. of the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction late Friday preventing the federal agencies from enforcing their regulations. The rules, the judge said, violated the states’ rights and put them in an untenable situation.

“At a minimum, Defendants’ guidance appears to deem conduct required by Plaintiffs’ state laws to be unlawful sex discrimination under federal law,” the judge’s ruling states. “And, because Plaintiffs are subject to Titles VII and IX, and are thus objects of the guidance, Defendants’ guidance directly interferes with and threatens Plaintiff States’ ability to continue enforcing their state laws.

“As it currently stands, Plaintiffs must choose between the threat of legal consequences — enforcement action, civil penalties, and the withholding of federal funding — or altering their state laws to ensure compliance with the guidance,” the judge added.

The states that signed on to the lawsuit include Tennessee, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

The lawsuit takes aim at action that President Biden took on January 20, 2021, his first day in office. In an executive order, Mr. Biden declared that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on sex, also extends to discrimination based on someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The administration cited a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County — which extended federal civil rights protections to gay and transgender Americans — as rationale for its order.

Subsequent to the order, in June 2021, the Department of Education updated its guidance to schools and universities, informing them that the 1972 Title IX civil rights law, which was also aimed at preventing discrimination in education because of sex, applies to discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

The same month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance stating that employers would be in violation of federal law if they discriminated against employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The guidance laid out employers’ obligations with respect to dress codes, bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and use of preferred pronouns or names.

In August of 2021, the attorneys general sued to block the orders coming down from the Biden administration. The states maintain that the rules are an administrative overreach by the administration that infringes on their right to make and enforce their own rules in their respective states.

Many of the states have statutes that contradict the federal guidance, they said. Tennessee law, for example, prohibits middle- and high-school students from participating in sports that don’t align with their sex at birth. Another law there prohibits students from using bathrooms or locker rooms of the opposite sex.

A gay rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, said it was “disappointed and outraged” by the ruling, calling it “yet another example of far-right judges legislating from the bench.” The group promised to continue fighting what it called “anti-transgender rulings with every tool in our toolbox.”

Oklahoma’s attorney general, John O’Connor, however, called the ruling a “major victory for women’s sports and for the privacy and safety of girls and women in their school bathrooms and locker rooms.

“I am grateful the court ruled for Oklahoma and stopped the Biden Administration from enforcing its outrageous reading of Title IX, to include gender identity as a protected class. I will continue to hold President Biden accountable and do everything I can to uphold the rule of law,” Mr. O’Connor added.

A group seeking to intervene in the case, the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing an association of Christian schools and three female athletes, also praised the ruling.

“The Biden administration’s radical push to redefine sex in federal law — and without the required public comment period — threatens to erase women’s sports and eliminate the opportunities for women that Title IX was intended to protect. We are pleased that female athletes will be protected in 20 states while this lawsuit moves forward,” said the group’s senior counsel, Jonathan Scruggs.

The administration has not said whether it intends to appeal the ruling.