US Supreme Court upholds Idaho, West Virginia laws banning transgender athletes from women's sports
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The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for states to impose restrictions on transgender athletes, upholding laws in Idaho and West Virginia that bar them from women's sports teams — a contentious issue rife in the nation's culture wars.
The justices overturned lower court rulings that sided with transgender students who challenged the bans in the two states as violating the US Constitution and federal anti-discrimination law.
Idaho and West Virginia law designates sports teams at public schools including universities based on “natural sex” — as assigned at birth — and bans “male students” from women's teams. Twenty-five other states have similar laws on the books.
The administration of Republican President Donald Trump, who has violated the rights of people of the opposite sex, supported the states in the lawsuit.
Idaho and West Virginia say the laws protect fair and safe competition for women and girls, while critics see the measures as part of a broader attack on the rights of transgender Americans.
Students who challenged the measures say they discriminate based on a person's gender or transgender status — in violation of the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law, and Title IX of the civil rights law that prohibits discrimination in education “on the basis of sex.”
Last year, in another major decision for transgender rights, the Supreme Court said that states can ban treatments such as birth control pills and hormones for people under the age of 18 who experience gender dysphoria. That term refers to the clinical diagnosis of severe depression that can be caused by a mismatch between a person's gender identity and sex at birth.
The Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority, upheld further restrictions on transgender people, allowing Trump to bar transgender members of the military and passport applicants from selecting the gender that indicates their gender identity on the document.
However, the court in 2020 issued a landmark ruling that protects transgender people from discrimination in the workplace under a federal law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that contains words similar to Title IX.
Trump's policies
The issue of transgender players playing on women's sports teams has become part of America's culture wars.
Trump has taken a hard line on transgender rights since returning to office in January 2025. He has cast the gender identity of transgender people as false and issued executive orders to limit their rights including one involving participation in sports.
The challenge to the West Virginia law was brought by Becky Pepper-Jackson and her mother Heather Jackson. Pepper-Jackson attends high school in Bridgeport, WV, and participates in the shot put and discus.
Idaho's challenge was brought by Lindsay Hecox, a transgender student who once participated in the soccer and track clubs at Boise State University, a public university.
Hecox decided to stop playing sports and sought to dismiss the case in part out of fear of harassment and growing intolerance towards transgender people. Hecox's lawyers argued that the development made the challenge stronger.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in January. Its back-to-back lawsuits have raised concerns about imposing a uniform rule across the country amid disagreements and uncertainty over whether drugs such as anti-puberty or sex-affirming hormones are eroding a male's physical advantage in sports.
