Overview
- Justices heard oral arguments Tuesday in challenges to Idaho’s 2020 law and West Virginia’s 2021 law, both blocked by federal appeals courts for violating Title IX or equal protection.
- The cases ask whether Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment bar bans targeting transgender girls, with legal experts warning a ruling on the meaning of “sex” could affect passports, bathrooms, military policy and federal funding.
- The Trump administration backs the state laws in court and has directed agencies to withhold education funds from schools that allow transgender girls to compete; the NCAA and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees have barred transgender women from women’s competitions following those actions.
- West Virginia plaintiff Becky Pepper-Jackson, 15, has taken puberty blockers and is the only known transgender student seeking to compete on girls’ teams in the state, while Idaho plaintiff Lindsay Hecox has asked the Court to dismiss her case as moot.
- Roughly two dozen states have enacted similar sports restrictions, and the Court is expected to decide by early summer, potentially reshaping Title IX enforcement nationwide.