BATON ROUGE - State Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Monday that her office has sued the federal government in an attempt to limit an expanded interpretation of Title IX regulations.

Murrill was joined by Gov. Jeff Landry and Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley at a press conference responding to the changes.

On April 19, the Biden administration updated Title IX — a law created in 1972 that states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Biden's new additions expand Title IX regulations to include LGBTQ+ students. Once the matter takes effect Aug. 1, students will be able to use locker rooms, bathrooms and sleeping accommodations for overnight trips that associate with their gender identity. 

AG Murrill said her office is against the expansion of Title IX and sued the U.S. Department of Education. 

The lawsuit, Louisiana v. The U.S. Department of Education, sees Louisiana joined by Mississippi, Montana and Idaho in opposing the new Title IX regulations.

Landry and State Senator Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton), who authored the recently-passed "Fairness in Women’s Sports Act," both expressed their support for the suit.

Murrill said the expansion of Title IX would add "burdensome requirements" on nearly every school in the state. 

"This would deprive women and girls of the equal educational opportunities they struggled for decades to secure, and cost states billions of dollars to implement," she said.

LGBTQ+ rights activist SarahJane Guidry who serves as the Executive Director at Forum for Equality says these changes to Title IX were made federally to protect children from attacks by state lawmakers. Guidry added, this lawsuit is a direct example of that. 

"These are children we are talking about," Guidry said. "Their classroom is where they spend the majority of their day. And it's where they should be respected and accepted for who they are."

The new laws take effect Aug. 1. Murrill hopes her lawsuit will pause the implementation of these new changes in Louisiana.