By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A federal judge in Louisiana on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing in four states a new rule that bars schools and colleges that receive federal funding from discriminating against students based on their gender identity.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe issued a preliminary injunction barring a U.S. Department of Education rule that extended sex discrimination protections under Title IX to LGBT students from taking effect in the Republican-led states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho.

The ruling by Doughty, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, appeared to be the first nationally to block the rule in response to one of the many lawsuits filed by Republican-led states and conservative litigants challenging it.

The Education Department in issuing the rule said it clarified that the prohibition against sex-based discrimination in schools and colleges that receive federal funding contained in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 also includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The department cited a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a ban against sex discrimination in the workplace contained in a different law, Title VII, covered gay and transgender workers.

Courts often rely on interpretations of Title VII when analyzing Title IX as both laws bar discrimination on the basis of sex.

But Doughty agreed with the Republican state attorneys general of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho that Congress did not clearly authorize the department to enact the rule, which he said was “inconsistent with the text, structure, and purpose of Title IX.”

“Accordingly, this Court finds that Defendants do not have the authority to enact regulations which change the meaning of ‘sex discrimination’ to include gender identity, sexual orientation, sex stereotypes or sex characteristics,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis)