The Supreme Court has opened the door for states to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, delivering a significant legal victory for Donald Trump and his allies.
In a decision issued Tuesday, the justices reversed lower court rulings that had favored transgender students challenging restrictions in Idaho and West Virginia. The students argued the bans violated both the Constitution and federal anti-discrimination protections.
The court’s conservative bloc ruled 6-3 that the state laws do not run afoul of the Constitution.
Separately, the justices were unanimous in finding that excluding transgender athletes from those teams did not violate Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education.
Writing for the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that “states may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females.”
Trump quickly praised the outcome on Truth Social, writing: “BIG WIN: The United States Supreme Court just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The closely watched ruling permits schools in Idaho and West Virginia to base eligibility for girls’ and women’s teams on a student’s sex assigned at birth, and it is likely to influence similar disputes and policies across the country.
Trump made transgender issues a prominent part of his 2024 campaign for a return to the White House, including pledges to penalize doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tied for 5th in the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
Riley Gaines emerged as the face of the anti-trans in women’s’ sports issues. She swam against trans athlete Lia Thomas
His campaign notably spent $11 million on campaign ads targeting then-Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s transgender policies.
‘The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse,’ Trump said in a Truth Social video posted ahead of the 2024 elections. ‘
‘Very simple,’ he added. ‘Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth.’
The Supreme Court in January heard nearly four hours of oral arguments in the cases.
They centered on the legality of two state laws in Idaho and West Virginia law, which prohibit female-identifying transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Lower courts had struck down both the West Virginia and Idaho laws, ruling that they violate Title IX and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution, respectively – prompting the GOP-led states to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court for review.
Conservative justices appeared inclined to side with the states during oral arguments and let their laws remain in place, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who seemed to indicate unease about the federal judiciary weighing in on a state issue.
Idaho’s law, enacted in 2020, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, imposed a flat ban on transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams in public schools at all levels, ranging from elementary school to college.
West Virginia, meanwhile, passed its Save Women’s Sports Act law in 2021. It bars transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams in public secondary schools and public colleges.
Protesters are seen outside the Supreme Court as it weighs state efforts to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams
Just last month, a controversial transgender high school track star blew the competition away in three events at a competition in California.
AB Hernandez, who was born male, won the girl’s high jump, long jump and triple jump events at Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) Southern Section Track and Field Masters meet at Moorpark High School in Ventura County.
Infamous trans athlete Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as female, has become the face of the movement, speaking out against Trump and the administration.
Thomas competed for the University of Pennsylvania women’s team in 2021-22 and won a national championship after previously being on the men’s team. She competed against now-conservative activist Riley Gaines.
Hernandez jumped a foot higher than the nearest rival in a recent long jump competition
Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court as justices weigh two state laws banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams
Riley Gaines, a conservative political activist, speaks outside the Supreme Court before justices hear oral arguments in two cases involving GOP laws on transgender athletes in sports
Trans competitor Hernandez dominated the long jump, triple jump and high jump events
Lia Thomas has slammed campaigners who try to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports
Her participation was a significant moment in the debate around transgender athletes, with female competitors sympathizing with Thomas but unhappy at sharing a locker room with her and questioning how fair it was to be racing her.
In turn, it made Thomas one of the athletes most closely associated with the heated debate on both sides.
‘You don’t get to pick and choose when you see me as a woman,’ Thomas previously said. ‘You don’t get to say, ‘You can be a woman in these situations, but not in these’ because you would never do that to a cis woman.
