The US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports, handing a significant victory to supporters of the restrictions in one of the country’s most divisive cultural and legal debates.
Gatekeepers News reports that the ruling allows Idaho, West Virginia and more than two dozen Republican-led states to enforce laws requiring students to compete on public school and college sports teams based on their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.
The decision marks another victory for conservative-led states on transgender rights after the court last year upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The legal challenge was brought by transgender students, who argued that the state laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution and Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Supporters of the measures contend the restrictions are necessary to ensure fair competition and protect athletic opportunities for girls and women. Opponents argue the laws unfairly target a small and vulnerable group of students, excluding them from school sports based on their gender identity.
Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected arguments that limiting participation in girls’ and women’s sports based on biological sex amounts to unconstitutional discrimination.
“May schools determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex? The answer is yes,” Kavanaugh wrote.
He added:
“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.”
The court ruled 6-3, although three justices who dissented agreed with parts of the majority’s reasoning.
The Idaho case stemmed from the state’s 2020 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which was challenged by a transgender student-athlete after lower courts ruled the law unconstitutional.
During oral arguments in January, Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst defended the legislation, arguing that “sex is what matters in sports,” citing biological differences in strength, muscle mass, size and lung capacity.
The West Virginia case involved a transgender teenage girl who was barred under a 2021 state law from competing on her middle school’s girls’ track team.
Her legal team argued that transgender girls receiving testosterone-suppressing treatment do not retain an unfair competitive advantage and maintained that the laws are driven more by politics than scientific evidence.
Addressing concerns raised during the case, Kavanaugh acknowledged the interests of transgender students but described competitive sports as a “zero-sum game,” where one athlete’s participation can affect another’s opportunities.
“Someone who tries out and makes it who is a transgender girl will bump from the starting lineup, from playing time, from the team… someone else,” he said. “There’s a harm there.”
The ruling comes amid a broader national effort by conservative lawmakers to regulate transgender participation in school sports, healthcare and public life.
The issue gained national prominence after Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, competed in women’s collegiate swimming events in 2022 after previously competing on the men’s team.
Supporters of transgender rights argue that public debate has been shaped by a small number of high-profile cases rather than widespread evidence.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 70 percent of respondents believe transgender women and girls should not be allowed to compete on girls’ and women’s school sports teams.
