The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that states can prohibit transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams.
The decision came down in two cases, West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, on the issue of restricting transgender athletes' participation in school sports. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for the majority, writing that under Title IX, the law that promotes equal opportunity in sports, and the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, schools can base eligibility for women and girls' sports teams on biological sex.
'Consistent with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, we hold that the States may maintain women's and girls' sports for biological females. They may determine eligibility for women's and girls' sports based on biological sex,' wrote Kavanaugh.
The three liberal justices dissented from the majority's finding in the Equal Protection Clause, but agreed with the majority on Title IX.
The ruling protects similar laws in 25 states which have been enacted in recent years in response to transgender athletes competing in girls' and women's sporting events.
The NCAA and the International Olympic Committee have also updated their eligibility policies, limiting competition in women's events to only athletes assigned female at birth.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal civil rights law known as Title VII prohibits an employer from firing a worker because of their sexual orientation or transgender status. Plaintiffs argued that Title IX should apply to the current cases, but Kavanaugh wrote that the 2020 ruling was not relevant due to different statutory and factual context because it concerned employment.
The two transgender athletes who challenged the West Virginia and Idaho's laws, Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, respectively, were represented by the ACLU.
At issue was whether Title IX or the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause prevented a state from forbidding transgender girls and women from playing on the athletic teams that match their gender identity. The court ruled that they do not. Title IX was enacted more than 50 years ago and prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs. Two years after its passage, regulations were adopted to allow schools to operate sex-separated athletic teams, locker rooms, restrooms and showers. Schools, though, must provide 'equal athletic opportunity' for members of both sexes.
The Supreme Court also weighed in on a law from Idaho, which was the first state to forbid transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports. Hecox filed her lawsuit challenging Idaho's law after seeking to compete on the women's track and crosscountry teams at Boise State University and argued that the state's ban was unconstitutional and a violation of Title IX.