By Alison Durkee Forbes Staff
The Supreme Court announced Thursday it will take up multiple cases concerning state bans on transgender women in sports, teeing up a potential landmark ruling on transgender rights as the issue has become an increasing source of political controversy.
A transgender rights supporter rallies outside the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4, 2024 in … More Washington, DC.
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The court announced it will hear two cases next term involving state-level bans on transgender women in sports: West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, which involve bans in West Virginia and Idaho, respectively.
Both cases ask the court to decide whether laws that restrict participation in women鈥檚 sports based on biological sex violate the 14th Amendment鈥檚 Equal Protection Clause.
West Virginia鈥檚 case also asks whether states can 鈥渃onsistently designat[e] girls鈥 and boys鈥 sports teams based on biological sex鈥 under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.
Officials in Idaho and West Virginia asked the high court to take up the cases after lower courts blocked the state laws as they applied to the transgender athletes who brought the lawsuits, allowing those specific plaintiffs to participate in women鈥檚 sports.
The Supreme Court did not offer any reasoning Thursday for its decision to take up the cases, or any note suggesting if any justices dissented from the decision, and the court did not take up a third case regarding Arizona鈥檚 ban on transgender women in sports.
Crucial Quote
鈥淲e believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play,鈥 Joshua Block, Senior Counsel for the ACLU鈥檚 LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement Thursday about the court鈥檚 decision to take up the two cases. The ACLU is representing plaintiffs in the cases, along with Lambda Legal.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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