A Trump-appointed judge who failed to gain Senate approval on his first nomination refused to block the implementation of new Title IX rules, pushed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, which narrow the definition of sexual harassment and reduces liabilities for schools to investigate complaints, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. District Judge Carl. J. Nichols, a Trump appointee whose first nomination was sent back to the White House after it barely cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee because it wasn’t certain he had support of enough republicans in the Senate.  He was renominated and passed the Senate with just 55 votes.

Nichols refused to pause the implementation of rules that narrow the definition of sexual harassment to acts of “unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” that it denies a person access to a school’s education programs or activity.

The new rules also limit the types of complaints a school must investigate as well as the number of positions at a university to which complaints may be filed.

Attorneys General from seventeen states and the District of Columbia filed to stay the implementation of the rules until the case is heard in court.  The American Council on Education and 24 higher education associations supported the efforts of the state AGs.

“In the best of times, that deadline would be unreasonable. But in light of the extraordinary burdens that have been placed on American colleges and universities in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, that August 14 implementation deadline is problematic in the extreme,” the groups wrote.