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WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to weigh in on state bans prohibiting transgender athletes’ participation in sports.
The justices took up two appeals out of West Virginia and Idaho that will be heard next term, giving the court an opportunity to chime in on the contentious fight over transgender sports bans. Between the cases, the court will decide whether barring transgender athletes from sports participation is unconstitutional sex discrimination.
West Virginia’s appeal stemmed from a teenage transgender girl, identified as B.P.J. in court documents, who wanted to compete in girls’ track and field. B.P.J. was later publicly identified as Becky Pepper-Jackson in the media.
In 2021, the state enacted the Save Women’s Sports Act to “protect female athletes.” The law restricts participation in girls’ school sports teams based on biological sex and genetics at birth, declaring that “gender identity serves no legitimate relationship” to athletes’ participation on teams.
Differing from governing bodies that place regulations on transgender athletes, West Virginia’s law is an all-out ban on transgender girls from playing on girls-only athletic teams.
Pepper-Jackson, who takes puberty-delaying treatment and estrogen hormone therapy to prevent her from experiencing endogenous puberty, was barred from joining Bridgeport Middle School’s girls’ cross country and track and field teams. Her parents filed a lawsuit, claiming that the law violated Pepper-Jackson’s equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment and federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
Multiple lower courts and the Supreme Court blocked West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act, allowing Pepper-Jackson to play on her school’s team.
Idaho’s law similarly targets transgender girls in women’s sports. Lindsay Hecox, a 24-year-old transgender track and field athlete, wanted to try out for women’s teams at Boise State University. A lower court also blocked Idaho’s law, but Hecox failed to make the university’s NCAA cross country team.
Representatives for the athletes from the ACLU and Lambda Legal boosted the lower court rulings on Thursday, expressing optimism that the decisions would stand the test of time at the Supreme Court.
“Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth,” Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. “We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
LGBTQ advocates warned that transgender sports bans would lead to sex testing, putting all female athletes at risk. Sex testing has a long history in elite women’s sports, forcing athletes to undergo mandatory examinations.
Since 2020, 27 states have banned transgender youth from playing school sports. While sex testing has a long history in elite women’s sports, teenage girls are facing increasing scrutiny, including a 500-page report on a 15-year-old volleyball player in Florida.
The high court’s announcement comes one day after President Donald Trump strong-armed the University of Pennsylvania into blocking transgender athletes from women’s sports teams. Trump withheld $175 million in federal funding from the university, which had become central to the debate over transgender sports because of records set by swimmer Lia Thomas.
Trump signed an executive order rescinding federal funding for school programs that allow transgender girls to participate in women’s sports. With the Supreme Court’s approval, the president carried out a broader attack on transgender individuals, kicking transgender troops out of the military.
In June, the justices agreed to let Tennessee ban gender affirming care for transgender minors. The high court is making itself the final arbiter of many debates around transgender rights, also agreeing to review a ban on conversion therapy next term.
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