A federal judge in Kansas has blocked enforcement of a federal regulation expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students in four states and many other locations.

U.S. District Judge John Broomes suggested in his ruling Tuesday that the Biden administration must now consider whether it is “still worth the effort” to enforce compliance.

Broomes' decision was the third by a federal judge against the rule in less than three weeks, but it was more sweeping than the others. It applies to Alaska, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, which have sued to stop the new rule. It also applies to a middle school in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which a student sued over the rule, and to members of three groups that support Republican efforts across the country to roll back LGBTQ+ rights. They are all involved in a lawsuit.

Broomes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, directed the three groups – Moms for Liberty, Young America's Foundation and Female Athletes United – to submit a list of schools where their members' children study so their schools would also be exempt from the rule. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who argued the state's case before Broomes last month, said that could include thousands of schools.

The Biden administration's order is set to take effect in August under Title IX, a civil rights law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Broomes' order is set to remain in effect until the Kansas lawsuit is heard, although the judge concluded that the states and three groups are likely to win. In the Utah case, the state had already tried to use a new sovereignty law to simply ignore the federal rule.

Republicans argue that the rule is a ruse by the Biden administration to allow transgender women to play on girls' and women's sports teams, which is banned or restricted in Kansas and at least 24 other states. The administration has said the rule does not apply to sports. Opponents of the rule have also framed the issue as protecting the privacy and safety of women and girls in restrooms and locker rooms. Utah passed a law this year restricting access to restrooms in facilities that correspond to a gender assigned at birth.

“Gender ideology has no place in public schools, and we are glad the courts made the right decision to support parents’ rights,” Moms for Liberty co-founders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice said in a statement.

LGBTQ+ youth, their parents, health care providers and others say restrictions on transgender youth harm their mental health and make an often marginalized group even more vulnerable. The Department of Education has so far stuck to its rule, and President Joe Biden has promised to protect LGBTQ+ rights.

The Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday.

In addition to Broomes, two other federal judges issued rulings in mid-June blocking the new rule in ten other states. The rule would protect LGBTQ+ students by expanding the definition of sexual harassment in schools and colleges and adding protections for victims.

Like the other justices, Broomes called the rule arbitrary and concluded that the Department of Education and its secretary, Miguel Cardona, had exceeded the authority granted by Title IX. He also concluded that the rule violates the free speech and religious rights of parents and students who reject the gender identity of transgender students and seek to express those views at school or elsewhere in public.

Broomes said his 47-page order leaves it to the Biden administration “to first decide whether further enforcement consistent with this decision is worthwhile.”

Broomes also said the privacy and safety of non-transgender students could be at risk under the policy, citing the Oklahoma middle school student's statement that cis boys “sometimes” used girls' bathrooms “because they knew they could get away with it.”

“It is not difficult to imagine that under the final rule, a diligent older teenager could simply claim to identify as a woman in order to gain access to the girls' showers, locker rooms or changing rooms so that he could watch his female peers undress and shower,” Broomes wrote, repeating a common but largely false narrative by anti-trans activists about gender identity and the way schools accommodate transgender students.

This article was written by John Hanna of the Associated Press.