The court’s six conservatives ruled that Idaho and West Virginia did not violate the Equal Protection Clause because the laws were designed to favor athletic fairness.
“Biological males generally have inherent physical advantages in sports,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, calling the matter a topic on which there remains “medical and scientific uncertainty.”
He rejected equal protection claims from Two athletes: 16-year-old shot put champion Becky Pepper Jackson of West Virginia and 25-year-old Boise State student Lindsay Hickox, who failed to make her school’s cross country team because she was “too slow” but has played in club-level sports.
The athletes argued that they took puberty-blocking medications that would reduce their benefits, but Kavanaugh wrote that states were not obligated to “grant individual exemptions to specific athletes or subcategories.”
The court unanimously ruled that West Virginia’s ban did not violate Title IX. But the court’s three liberals disagreed on the issue of equal protection.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the scientific uncertainty surrounding the issue is precisely why states should act cautiously rather than enact outright bans.
“In the end, to C“For us, the facts don’t matter, even though the consequences are serious,” she wrote in her dissent.
She added that a state ban would be harmful to trans people seeking friendship and community through sports. Because of the court’s decision, she said, the state can deprive young people “of these experiences simply because it believes they have an inherent athletic advantage, even if the facts show they don’t.”
Sasha Buchert, senior attorney and director of the Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal — which represented Pepper-Jackson — said the ruling was “extremely harmful to transgender women and girls who only asked to be able to participate in sports with their peers.”
“Countless studies have shown the countless benefits that come from participating in team sports,” she added. “Now, one demographic, transgender youth and college students, is being targeted for specific, unfounded discrimination.”
The decision effectively legitimizes efforts in more than two dozen Republican-led states that have adopted bans on transgender athletes. However, Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), noted that the decision did not go as far as it could have, allowing other states to leave intact policies that allow trans students to participate.
“This is a disappointing decision, but it is also a narrow decision that leaves the door open for many states and schools that have adopted reasonable policies that protect equity and inclusion with respect to transgender students,” Minter said. “Today’s limited decision means that states and schools across the country still have the ability to set reasonable rules to ensure equity without banning all transgender girls.”
NCLR Staff Attorney Rachel Berg He said That the ruling still “ignores clear discrimination and political attacks against transgender girls” and calls for “invasive policing of young people’s bodies.”
“A blanket ban on transgender girls playing school sports invites anyone to call for the ‘gender verification’ of any girl who wants to play sports if they think she is ‘too tall’ or ‘too strong,’” she warned.
Legal lambda included Numerous cases in which youth in states that imposed bans were singled out and targeted for aggressive physical scrutiny by state officials:
In Florida, a 15-year-old junior volleyball player was the player Subject of police investigation After an anonymous accusation, prompting local officials to draft a 500-page report investigating her medical history, body weight and anatomy. In Utah, a teenage basketball player was accused of being transgender by a member of the state board of education, Which led to threats of violence against her and her familyand A teenager in Maine He faced a similar attack from a senator. In May, President Donald Trump was similarly targeted A 16-year-old transgender girl To participate in the high school track meet. Under Arizona’s ban, the male student was cisgender Banned from participating in the boys’ team In his high school due to a clerical error, he was listed as female on his original birth certificate.
Tuesday’s decision comes amid a nationwide attack legislation Attacks on transgender people, including bans on gender-affirming care for youth, bathroom bans, restrictions and invalidation of legal documents, and laws that prohibit schools from respecting students’ preferred gender identities.
The decision “also comes at a time of increasing authoritarian practices under the Trump administration, which is using gender and sexuality as a cultural battlefield for political gain,” said Carla Gonzalez Garcia, Director of Gender, Sex and Identity at Amnesty International USA.
The administration threatened to investigate, prosecute, and withdraw funding from schools that accept transgender athletes; It tried to stifle medical funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care; Banning transgender people from the military; And paid to Coercion of transgender women In men’s prisons where they are at high risk of sexual assault.
Center for Constitutional Rights He said Tuesday’s ruling “confirms what transgender and intersex advocates have known for some time: We are in a world Plessy v. Ferguson/Bowers v. Hardwick era of transgender rights,” referring to Supreme Court cases that upheld Jim Crow segregation and state prohibitions on homosexuality.
“We have entered a period in which legal recognition and legal protections for trans and intersex people are at an all-time low,” the group said. continued. “Through their actions and rhetoric, anti-transgender policymakers and activists have made clear their goal: to terrorize trans people and keep them out of public life.”
Several Democratic members of Congress expressed solidarity with the transgender community following the ruling.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling allowing states to ban transgender children from playing sports is discriminatory and opens the door to incredibly unfair screenings of children to determine who can play on what team.” He said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who was an adult Girl He is transient. “This resolution targets a small number of athletes and encourages the Republican anti-trans campaign.”
Rep. Brittany Petersen (D-Colorado) to caution The decision “gives Trump another weapon to strip protections and funding from schools across our country,” and said Republicans are “using our most vulnerable children as a weapon in a fight they didn’t choose.”
Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) He said“We will keep fighting. Discrimination and hatred will not win.”
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