MONROE - A federal judge in Louisiana has temporarily halted changes to Title IX rules that expanded the law's application to transgender and gay students.

The temporary injunction signed by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, applies only in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho, the states that sued the federal government over the change.

In his ruling, Doughty said the states are likely to succeed in showing that the rule violates Title IX, the First Amendment, and the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Title IX was "enacted for the protection of the discrimination of biological females," Doughty wrote, and the new rules "may likely cause biological females more discrimination than they had before Title IX was enacted."

Doughty said the rules did not consider the effect on cisgender students and that biological females risk "invasion of privacy, embarrassment and sexual assault" as a result of "allowing biological men who identify as females into locker rooms."

"This case demonstrates the abuse of power by executive federal agencies in the rulemaking process," Doughty concluded.