Dem-Appointed Judges Rule Powerlifting Org’s Ban On Men In Women’s Events ‘Discriminatory’

The Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that USA Powerlifting discriminated against a male athlete claiming to be female who attempted to compete in the women’s division.

JayCee Cooper, a transgender athlete, sued USA Powerlifting in 2021, claiming the organization engaged in discriminatory practices after rejecting his application to compete in the women’s division in 2018 and violated Minnesota’s Human Rights Act. The court’s unanimous decision came from a seven-member bench composed entirely of Democrat-appointed justices.

“We agree with Cooper that USA Powerlifting’s policy is discriminatory on its face; there is therefore no genuine dispute that USA Powerlifting discriminated against Cooper because of her transgender status,” the decision reads.

The dispute dates back to 2018, when USA Powerlifting rejected Cooper’s application.

“At some point, we are going to have to defend the biology and stand on women being a protected class, and it might as well start in Minnesota,” then USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile told the Daily Caller in 2019, when Cooper initially filed the complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

Cooper filed suit in 2021, and a trial court initially sided with him. However, the Minnesota Court of Appeals sent the case back, citing “genuine issues of fact” about whether USA Powerlifting excluded Cooper because of his transgender identity and whether the organization had a “legitimate business reason” for doing so, according to the