Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may restrict participation in girls’ and women’s school sports to athletes assigned female at birth, affirming laws from West Virginia and Idaho.
The Supreme Court issued a decision allowing states to limit eligibility for girls’ and women’s school sports teams to athletes who are biologically female. The ruling affirmed two statutes – West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act and Idaho’s similar ban – that prohibit transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, stating that Title IX and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause permit states to base team eligibility on biological sex. He added that the law does not require a nationwide overhaul of women’s sports.
Three liberal justices dissented on the Equal Protection issue, arguing that the case involved unresolved factual questions. Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a summary of her dissent, emphasizing that the ban affects a transgender student’s ability to participate in sports that could help treat gender dysphoria.
The decision protects comparable bans in 27 states and aligns with recent policy changes by the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee, which also limit women’s competition to athletes assigned female at birth. It follows the Court’s earlier affirmation of a Tennessee law restricting gender-affirming medical treatment for minors.
In the West Virginia case, the law was challenged by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender high-school runner who had begun social transition in third grade and was receiving puberty-delaying medication. A lower court had upheld the law, but an appellate court later found it discriminatory; the Supreme Court reversed that finding.
The Idaho case involved Lindsay Hecox, who sued after being barred from women’s track and cross-country at Boise State University. A federal appeals court had previously ruled the ban likely unconstitutional, a ruling the Supreme Court now upheld.
The Court distinguished the present matter from its 2020 decision interpreting Title VII, noting that Title VII governs employment while Title IX governs educational athletics, and therefore the two statutes address different factual contexts.
