Landmark Supreme Court case hearings Tuesday could shape rules for transgender athletes nationwide
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m. ET in two cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., that could decide the fate of state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports nationwide. Arguments in West Virginia v. B.P.J. are scheduled from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and center on whether laws limiting women’s sports participation based on biological sex violate the Equal Protection Clause.
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Sex "discrimination" or gender "fairness" in scholastic activities? The Supreme Court will decide the divisive social question when it holds oral arguments Tuesday in a pair of cases reviewing separate state bans on transgender and non-binary athletes participating in female-only public school sports teams.
The justices are hearing appeals from Idaho and West Virginia, after lower courts struck down state laws, affecting those students from the elementary to college level.
The Trump Justice Department is supporting the state laws and will have time at oral argument to talk about the federal implications.
What the court does here could affect other legal fights over LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender people having access to bathrooms, or sex designation on documents like passports and driver's licenses.
The justices could decide to rule narrowly on the rights of athletic competitors or offer a more sweeping precedent over discrimination claims in the workplace, public spaces, military service, government benefits, housing, health care and education.
This is an excerpt written by Fox News' Shannon Bream and Bill Mears
Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst argued that Idaho's case for keeping transgender athletes out of girls' and women's sports "isn't moot."
Justice Sotomayor mentioned the Acheson Hotels case from 2023, and "we've been directed the case be considered moot."
"There's no reason to question the sincerity of that belief, given that dropping out of sports puts you at a disadvantage, where you lose your competitive edge and she's going to graduate soon," Sotomayor said.
"This case isn't moot," Hurst said.
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in two cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., that could determine whether states can ban transgender athletes who identify as women from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, a legal fight that could have far-reaching implications on transgender policies across the country.
In Little v. Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a biological man who sought to compete on the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University, contended that Idaho’s law, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, violated the equal protection clause by excluding transgender women.
The Trump administration is supporting the states in the cases, asserting that Title IX and equal protection permit sex-based distinctions in athletics and criticizing lower courts for undermining states' authority. The solicitor general’s office will be able to present the administration’s case on behalf of the U.S. during Tuesday’s arguments.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Ashley Oliver
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FIRST ON FOX: The nation's Republican governors are warning that women's sports are at risk as the Supreme Court hears a high-profile case over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in girl's and women's sports.
The statement from the GOP governors comes as the nation's highest court on Tuesday hears oral arguments from Idaho and West Virginia in defense of their laws to protect women's sports.
"Recognizing the unique and inherent biological differences between men and women is not radical, it is commonsense," the Republican governors emphasized in a statement shared first with Fox News Digital.
And the GOP governors argued, "Those trying to erase our unique differences and ignore biological reality are doing so in the name of ‘inclusivity.' Forcing women and girls to compete against men, with greater strength and speed, is the opposite of inclusive. It’s unfair. For generations, women fought for equal opportunity on the playing field and won over 50 years ago with the passage of Title IX, and now that right is at risk again."
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser
Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom
Imagine if the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether the law of gravity still applies, even in these early years of the 21st century.
After all, some people are uncomfortable with their size. They feel sluggish and weighed down by that pull from the Earth. Why shouldn’t they just be able to ignore gravity and float along as easily as they please? Why should any law of nature be allowed to constrain how light and thin someone feels inside?
If that sounds ridiculous to you, imagine how female athletes have felt in recent years, having to compete against males just because they’ve been told that feeling like a woman can make them so.
Their make-believe is our hard reality. And some of us have empty spaces on our trophy shelves to prove it.
Each of us spent a lot of our growing-up years training our minds, straining our bodies and gaining the skills to compete against other girls and women on the athletic field. We worked hard — forfeited a lot of fun and family time — and steadily disciplined ourselves to become better, faster and stronger to win those trophies, stand on winners’ platforms and earn scholarships that could pay for our higher education.
Then something happened that we had no way to predict or prepare for. American sports culture went off the deep end.
This is an excerpt from an Opinion article written for Fox News by former college athletes Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall
Courtesy of Republican Attorneys General of America
West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey spoke out in response to allegations of sexual harassment against a transgender athlete who has sued his state to block its law that keeps biological males out of girls' sports.
McCuskey, who is leading his state's legal defense against the trans athlete the U.S. Supreme Court set to review the case Tuesday, addressed the allegations at a press conference Monday.
"Any time you think of a child being harassed, it gives you pause as a parent. And it isn't really part of our case, but harassment of any child of any kind in this country is inappropriate. And it’s wrong, and we all need to stand up to ensure that children aren’t being harassed in any of their venues, particularly athletics," McCuskey said.
The allegations were leveled against the trans athlete by Bridgeport High School student Adaleia Cross, who is a former track and field teammate of the trans athlete when the two were at Bridgeport Middle School.
Cross' mother, Abby, told Fox News Digital what the trans athlete allegedly said to her daughter when they shared the girls' locker room during the 2022-23 school year. Adaleia was in eighth grade, and the trans athlete was in seventh. Abby Cross alleges the trans athlete made extremely graphic and vulgar sexual threats to her daughter and other girls on the team.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Jackson Thompson
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images;Tim Clayton/Getty Images
With the U.S. Supreme Court set to rule on two cases focused on the issue of biological males in women's sports, hundreds of prominent figures in sports and politics have publicly taken a side.
At least 77 amicus briefs have been filed for the upcoming court review, some in support of the trans athlete plaintiffs and some in support of the "save women's sports" defendants.
Famed athletes, coaches, U.S. lawmakers and other state and federal government officials have signed onto those briefs, declaring their allegiance in the historic legal battle.
Some athletes, coaches and sports officials supporting the "save women's sports" defendants:
Martina Navratilova, 59-time Grand Slam Champion tennis player, Donna de Varona, Olympic gold medalist swimmer and world record holder, Summer Sanders, Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Riley Gaines, 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer and SEC record holder, Reka Gyorgy, Olympic swimmer and 2× ACC champion, Lauren Miller, professional women’s golfer, Hannah Arensman, professional cyclocross cyclist and national champion, Laura Wilkinson, Olympic gold medalist and world champion diver, Pamela Behrens Golding, Olympic athlete and Jill Sterkel, Olympic swimmer and former University of Texas head swim coach.
Some athletes, coaches and sports officials supporting the trans athlete plaintiffs:
Megan Rapinoe , two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion and former co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, Layshia Clarendon, former WNBA All-Star point guard and first openly trans and nonbinary player in WNBA history, Lori Lindsey, former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team midfielder and World Cup veteran, Aimee Mullins, Paralympic track and field world-record holder and former Chef de Mission for Team USA, Breanna Stewart, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time WNBA MVP, Sue Bird, Olympic gold medalist, WNBA champion, and Basketball Hall of Famer, Grete Eliassen, six-time X Games medalist in freestyle skiing, Serena Gray, former USA Volleyball national team member and NCAA tournament semifinalist, Molly McCage, Olympic-level volleyball player and League One Volleyball champion and Cassidy Lichtman, former U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team member and Stanford All-American.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Jackson Thompson.
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in two cases that could determine whether states can ban transgender athletes who identify as women from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, a legal fight that could have far-reaching implications on transgender policies across the country.
The arguments in the two cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., will examine state bans on transgender athletes participating in school sports under Title IX and the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
At issue is whether laws in Idaho and West Virginia that prohibit transgender athletes who identify as women from playing on teams that match their gender identity discriminate based on sex.
Lower courts struck down the bans as unconstitutional violations of Title IX and equal protection, and the two Republican-led states appealed to the Supreme Court.
"It’s about Title IX. It‘s about equal protection, and it’s also about common sense, but mostly it’s about protecting women in both academia and on the athletic field," West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
The justices will hear each of the cases Tuesday morning beginning at 10 a.m.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Ashley Oliver.
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