The US Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear cases over state policies concerning the public school-funded sports teams that transgender students may join.
The plaintiffs, two transgender women students named Lindsay Hecox and Becky Pepper-Jackson (BPJ), sued Idaho and West Virginia officials, respectively, on the basis of Title IX and Equal Protection Clause violations. They sought to join their respective schools’ female cross-country and track teams. Hecox and BPJ have secured temporary and permanent injunctions, respectively, from lower federal appeals courts blocking their respective state restrictions. Idaho and West Virginia officials petitioned the Supreme Court to review the lower courts’ decisions under the correct application of Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.
The students had requested that the Supreme Court hold off on deciding whether to grant the petition until their United States v. Skrmetti case was decided, as an alternative to denying the petition. The court issued its ruling on June 18 and held that Tennessee’s law banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy on transgender minors does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.
In April 2020, Hecox was attending Boise State University (BSU) as a freshman when she filed her lawsuit. She has sought to block the enforcement of Idaho’s House Bill 500. BJP was an upcoming middle school student when she filed her lawsuit in May 2021. She has sought to block the enforcement of the Save Women’s Sports Act passed in April 2021. BPJ’s birth-assigned sex was male, but she has publicly identified as a girl since third grade and has been taking puberty-blocking medication.
The ACLU has joined in representing the plaintiffs. Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project Joshua Block stated in a press release:
Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.
Attorney General John McCuskey said in a statement, “It’s a great day, as female athletes in West Virginia will have their voices heard. The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this commonsense law preserving women’s sports for women.”
Idaho was the first state in the nation to issue a ban on transgender women joining female public school sports. More than twenty other states have followed suit in implementing similar sport restrictions on transgender women.
The Supreme Court will begin to hear cases that have been granted certiorari in its next term, starting October 6, 2025.
