Justices uphold trans athlete ban
Some states say rule is to ensure safety, fairness
By: Maureen Grippe
USA Today
WASHINGTON - States can ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams, tjhe Supreme Court ruled on June 30 [2026] in addressing a major cultural and political flash point before adjourning for the summer.
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The decision is anther setback for the LGBTQ+ community form the high court, which has issued a series of recent rulings against transgender Americans.
..... The court said West Virginia's and Idaho's bans on female transgender athletes do not violate the Constitution or a federal law barring sex discrimination in education.
..... Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said schools "may determine eligibility for women's and girls' sports base don biological sex."
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"Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable," he wrote.
..... In partial dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she would have given the student challenging West Virginia's law a chance to show that the ban should not apply to her.
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"In opting otherwise, the majority extends great sympathy to those it favors: the young transgender girls and women who play sports," she wrote. "Because the majority, however, inflicts a hardship on soothe it disfavors without giving them the fair and full opportunity the constitution requires to litigate their contentions, I respectfully dissent."
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Twenty-seven states have passed similar bans, saying they are trying to ensure fairness and address safety concerns for non-transgender women.
..... West Virginia's and Idaho's laws are based on an athlete's "biological sex" - defined as a person's sex assigned at birth - and don't take into account someone's athletic ability or how far they are in transitioning to another gender.
..... The transgender students who challenged the laws said hormone therapy and other medical treatments they're taken have blocked any physiological advantages from being born male. the laws, they said, should not apply to them for that reason.
..... The students were also baning on a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision protecting transgender employees from workplace discrimination.
..... But since that unexpected 6-3 decision by a conservative court, the justices have often ruled against transgender Americans. That includes their 2025 decision that states can ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
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The court's decision - one of the most anticipated of the term - came amid a broad effort by President Donald Trump to target transgender people.
..... Trump's opposition to transgender women competing on female teams was a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign and, as president, he's moved to cut off federal funding to schools that allow transgender females to participate in girls' and woman's sports.
..... The Justice Department helped West Virginia and Idaho defend their bans before the Supreme Court.
..... Although the demonstration is separately trying to stop states from allowing transgender girls to compete on female teams, the Justice Department urged the court to only deice for now that bans are allowed and not get into whether they're required.
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The intense public spotlight and increasing criticism of transgender athletes prompted Lindsy Hecox, a student at Boise State University, to try to abandon her challenge to Idaho's law before the high court considered it.
..... After the case was argued in January, [2026] the justices agreed to her request, issuing decisions solely on the West Virginia case.
..... Two appeals courts had sided with the transgender students at early stages of the litigation, blocking enforcement of the laws as the challenges continued.
..... Because her testosterone is being suppressed and she is getting estrogen, Hecox said her testosterone levers are typical of non-transgender women and her muscle mass and size, which presumably may have given her an advantage, had both deceased.
...... Before withdrawing form sports this school year, [2025-2026] Hecox played soccer and ran on school club teams, the "no-cut" sports she turned to because she wasn't fast enough to make the completive NCCA cross-country and track teams, according to her lawyers.
...... "I think this is an important moment to just take a step back and say, is this law actually responding to a problem in a rational manner, or is it actually overreacting on the presumption that transgender women are categorically going to be strong athletes when that's not the case," Kathleen Hartnett, an attorney for Hecox, told the court.
..... She argued students like Hecox could be quired to have their testosterone elves tested as a work-around to a complete ban, but Idaho's attorney said states shouldn't have to make that accommodation.
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"Idaho's law is a substantial fit for 99 percent of males, and a perfect fit is not required," Idaho's solicitor general, Alan Hurst, told the court.
..... Becky Pepper-Jackson, who began her challenge to West Virginia's law when she was entering middle school, takes puberty-delaying medicinal and estrogen.
..... Still, West Virgina argued Pepper-Jackson retained a physical advantage that, as a high school freshman, helped her place third in a sate discus throwing compeitoion and eightth in hsot last year. [2025]
..... Pepper-Jackson attributed her athletic achievement to hard work and practices and said her performance is "well within the range" of non-transgender girls her age.
..... Her lawyer argued that the justices should send the case back to U.S. District Court for a trial to determine whether she has an advantage over teammates or rivals who were identified as girls at birth.
..... "And then we'll have the facts in front of us. And maybe they'll make the issue go away," Joshua Block, the ACLU attorney who represented Pepper-Jackson, said during oral arguments. "I think it's unnecessary to, you know, intervene at this instance with a sweeping legal conclusion to something that might actually be a narrow factual dispute."
..... Michael Williams, the attorney for West Virginia, countered that state legislatures, not courts, have the primary responsibility for weighing evidence and making policy judgments in "areas of evolving science and medicine, especially involving children.