Republican AGs ask Supreme Court to let states ban trans people from sports

A group of Republican attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to rule against transgender rights in litigation concerning anti-trans sports bills that were previously blocked in Idaho and West Virginia.

“The Ninth Circuit erred when it held that Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Constitution does not require States to redefine ‘sex’ to mean or include ‘gender identity.’ The difference between men and women in athletics ‘is a real one, and the principle of equal protection does not forbid’ States from ‘address[ing] the problem at hand in a manner specific to each gender,” wrote the attorneys general 26 states in a brief concerning Idaho’s legislation.

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Idaho and West Virginia have asked the Supreme Court to hear cases concerning iterations of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in each state, a bill that restricts trans girls’ and women’s right to participate in girls’ and women’s sports by defining them as men. However, the Supreme Court has not yet stated whether it’ll take this case, as the judges are currently in recess for the summer.

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“The Amici States all have laws and policies—like West Virginia’s Sports Act—that bar biological males from trying out for women’s and girls’ sports teams or competing in women’s and girls’ athletic competitions. Those laws reflect basic biology; they also reflect the fact that ignoring basic biology robs women and girls of an equal opportunity to compete for athletic accolades,” wrote the attorneys general in the West Virginia brief.

These laws are contrary to scientific consensus, which suggests there may be no inherent advantage to trans women who have been transitioning for some time. They also rely on the assumption that trans women do not count as real women and should not be offered the same opportunities as cis women, something that is contrary to the opinion of major medical organizations in the United States.

This group of attorneys general includes those from Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, as well as West Virginia and Idaho.

This effort is led by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who led the filing of both briefs.

The Idaho lawsuit has been ongoing since 2020, after Lindsay Hecox, a trans woman and runner at Boise State University, filed it with the help of the ACLU in response to their iteration of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. This ban has been blocked since a judge filed an injunction against it in the same year.

The West Virginia lawsuit was filed in 2021 by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a young trans girl challenging the law with the help of the ACLU and Lambda Legal. This case is especially important as Pepper-Jackson is on puberty blockers and has not undergone a testosterone-based puberty. A judge filed an injunction on this case as well.

The Supreme Court will be hearing a case on transgender rights later this year, L.W. v Skrmetti. This case concerns Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care.

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