The nation’s highest court heard arguments on restrictive laws in West Virginia and Idaho.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard more than three hours of oral arguments in separate cases involving state laws that ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
The cases involve two transgender students, Becky Pepper Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, who challenged state bans in West Virginia and Idaho, respectively.
The West Virginia law was enacted in 2021. It says gender is “based solely on the individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” According to the law, a female is a person “whose biological sex determined at birth is female.”
The Idaho law states that sports “designated for females, women, or girls should not be open to students of the male sex.”
Justices on the conservative-majority court appeared reluctant to find that the state bans violate either the 14th Amendment to the Constitution or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Justices raised the point that the Javits Amendment, enacted two years following Title IX, allows for sex classifications in sports based on biological sex. Title IX prohibits discrimination.
“Javits changed Title IX. It said, you know, sports are different,” said Justice Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday.
Justice Kavanaugh indicated that he is inclined to side with the states’ ability to regulate transgender participation in sports.
He spoke about Title IX and the growth of women’s sports being “one of the great successes… in the last 50 years.”
“There’s a harm there, and I think we can’t sweep that aside,” Justice Kavanaugh said.
The justices considered whether there is any scientific basis to the claim that transgender athletes who have taken hormone therapy possess an unfair physical advantage when participating in girls’ and women’s sports because of their sex at birth.
The court seemed predisposed to issue a narrow ruling focused on sports, rather than issuing a ruling that would impact other litigation over additional transgender policies such as restroom access.
President Trump has been outspoken against the participation of transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports due to their unfair physical advantage. Soon after taking office for his second term, he issued an executive order titled, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
In total, 27 states in the country have passed laws banning transgender students from participating in sports.
