FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas judge on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration's proposed changes to Title IX that recommended expanded protections for transgender students.

The Department of Education issued the proposed changes in April, which included protecting students and teachers from sex-based harassment and discrimination.

District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northeastern District of Texas halted the protections, siding with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a statement, Paxton celebrated the decision, calling the guidance “unlawful.”

“Today, a federal court vacated the unlawful guidance nationwide and issued a permanent injunction against its enforcement against Texas and its schools,” Paxton said. “This ruling ensures that no school district in the State of Texas will have to comply with the Biden Administration's interpretation of Title IX as including gender-identity requirements, including allowing men into women's restrooms or locker rooms or sports teams, or requiring students or teachers to use pronouns based on gender identity rather than biological sex.”

Paxton sued the federal government when the department first proposed the changes.

O’Connor argued in his order that the Department of Education “failed to follow the proper procedures.”

“Rather than promote the equal opportunity, dignity, and respect that Title IX demands for both biological sexes, [the DOE’s] Guidance Documents do the opposite in an effort to advance an agenda wholly divorced from the text, structure, and contemporary context of Title IX.…Thus, to allow [the Biden Administration’s] unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress. That is not how our democratic system functions.”