FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025

Contact: Tony Mangan, Communications Director, 605-773-6878 

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley reiterates that a lawsuit filed by 17 States regarding Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 only pertains to the listing of gender dysphoria as a disability and was not intended to rule all of Section 504 unconstitutional.

“This lawsuit will not render all of Section 504 unconstitutional, nor will it cause parents of disabled children to lose needed funding,” said Attorney General Jackley.  “It is unfortunate that the Biden Administration tried to force boys into girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms through Section 504 and disability funding. Both the Attorneys General, through this lawsuit, and President Trump, through his executive order, are putting a stop to this. This lawsuit is not stopping needed funding for disabled children and their parents, and Texas has made that clear.”

South Dakota was one of 17 states who joined a Texas lawsuit in 2024 challenging a Biden administration categorization of gender dysphoria as a disability under Section 504. The Biden Rule would have required schools and universities to allow boys to use girls’ bathrooms and showers and live in girls’ dormitories, to allow males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports and require teachers and students to use confusing sex pronouns.

President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025 that removed “gender identity disorders” from Section 504.

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