Attorneys for the College of the Ozarks in Missouri are asking the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Kansas City to void a federal directive forcing the school to end gender-specific living facilities. The regulation prompting the litigation was issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) following President Joe Biden’s signing of an executive order on his first day in the Oval Office directing all federal agencies to reinterpret Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in light of the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. That court decision held that prohibitions on sex-based discrimination must include an individual’s gender identity and sexual orientation. Based on Biden’s order, HUD officials, led by Secretary Marcia Fudge, a former Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, issued a Feb. 11 directive that bars any recipient of federal funds for any purpose from segregating bathrooms, showers, and other living quarters on …