04 July 2025 - U.S. Supreme Court to consider state restrictions for transgender athletes
Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges to Bans on Athletic Participation by Transgender Students
ACLU of Idaho and ACLU of West Virginia (ACLU, 03/07/2025)
The Supreme Court today granted certiorari in two federal court cases involving transgender youth challenging bans on their participation in local school and college sports. “Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status. Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do–to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” said Joshua Block, Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
Supreme Court will decide whether states can ban transgender girls from girls’ sports
Josh Gerstein and Bianca Quilantan (Politico, 03/07/2025)
The Supreme Court will decide whether states can ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams, plunging the high court back into the national debate around the rights of trans people. The court on Thursday added a pair of cases to next term’s docket about state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that ban people assigned male at birth from competing on school teams for women and girls. About half the states have similar laws, according to court papers. The justices announced they will hear appeals from Idaho and West Virginia against lower-court orders that blocked the bans from taking effect. An appeals court ruled that Idaho’s law violates the Constitution’s equal protection cause by targeting transgender people, while another appeals court concluded that the West Virginia law violates Title IX, the federal law banning most sex discrimination by schools.
Supreme Court agrees to review bans on transgender athletes joining teams that align with their gender identity
John Fritze and Devan Cole (CNN News, 03/07/2025)
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to decide whether states may ban transgender students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity, revisiting the issue of LGBTQ rights in a blockbuster case just days after upholding a ban on some health care for trans youth. The decision puts the issue of transgender rights on the Supreme Court’s docket for the second year in a row and is by far the most significant matter the justices have agreed to hear in the term that will begin in October. The cases, one from West Virginia and the other from Idaho, involve transgender athletes who at least initially competed in track and field and cross country. The West Virginia case was filed by a then-middle school student who told the Supreme Court she was “devastated at the prospect” of not being able to compete after the state passed a law banning trans women athletes’ participation in public school sports.
Americans have grown more supportive of restrictions for trans people in recent years
Pew Research Center (Pew Research Center, 26/02/2025)
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders related to transgender people. These have included orders banning trans women and girls from women’s sports and ending federal funding for health care related to gender transitions for youth. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that majorities of U.S. adults favor or strongly favor laws and policies that: Require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth (66%). Ban health care professionals from providing care related to gender transitions for minors (56%). At the same time, 56% of adults express support for policies aimed at protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces. Views on these policies and several others have shifted in recent years, with Americans becoming more supportive of restrictions for transgender people, according to the survey of 5,097 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 10-17, 2025.
Seal of the Supreme Court of the United States. Wikipedia, Public Domain.
