Overview
- The court heard back-to-back arguments in Little v. Hecox (Idaho) and West Virginia v. B.P.J., testing the bans under the Equal Protection Clause and, in West Virginia’s case, Title IX.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh called school sports a zero-sum setting that can displace cisgender girls, while Chief Justice John Roberts probed whether Bostock’s logic extends to sex-based team classifications.
- Several conservatives favored reading Title IX’s reference to sex as biological, the Trump administration urged a narrow ruling, and Kavanaugh pointed to NCAA and U.S. Olympic policies restricting transgender women.
- Lawyers and justices highlighted unsettled science on competitive advantage and the effect of hormone treatments, as the liberal bloc explored athlete-specific exceptions when no advantage is shown.
- Idaho plaintiff Lindsay Hecox has asked to dismiss her case as moot, lower courts have split on the bans, roughly half the states have enacted similar restrictions, and a decision is expected in June or early July 2026.