Supreme Court Frees States to Ban Transgender Athletes in Girls’ Sports

States can ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ and women’s school sports teams.

That's according to a Supreme Court ruling handed down Tuesday.

The ruling upholds restrictions already in place in Idaho and West Virginia.

The vote was 6-3.

Justice Brett Kavanaughsaid transgender athlete restrictions do not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity.  

“In other words, may schools determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex? The answer is yes,” Kavanaugh wrote.

“Consistent with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, we hold that the States may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females,” he wrote in the majority opinion. “They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex. The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson voted against the measure.

“Its holding may be straightforward, but that is not the point,” Sotomayor wrote in dissent. “The problem is how the majority gets there: by moving the goalposts set by precedent and by resolving this important, divisive issue without knowing all the facts even though the validity of the means-ends fit depends on them.”

Idaho became the first state to enact a ban in 2020; West Virginia as well as others followed.

🏅Transgender athletes —backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — hoped to defeat both states’ laws.

They argued the bans violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee and Title IX.

Title IX is the federal law that protects against sex discrimination in schools.  

Idaho’s law was challenged by Lindsay Hecox, who is transgender and wanted to try out for the Boise State University women’s track and cross-country teams.

The state appealed after it lost in the lower courts.

However, Hecox withdrew any future plans to compete and urged the justices to toss the case.

In West Virginia, Becky Pepper-Jackson, a teenage shot-putter and discus thrower who has publicly identified as female since the third grade, was the focal point in that state.

The two athletes were backed by LGBTQ advocacy groups, the National Women’s Law Center and 15 Democratic-led states.