Supreme Court appears likely to uphold transgender athlete bans
SCOTUSblog By Amy Howel 1/13/2026
The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed likely to uphold laws that prohibit transgender women and girls from competing on women’s and girls’ school sports teams. After nearly three-and-a-half hours of arguments in a pair of cases from Idaho and West Virginia, a majority of the justices appeared to agree with the states that the laws can remain in place, even if it was not clear how broadly their ruling might sweep.
The court’s three Democratic appointees appeared to recognize that the challengers faced an uphill battle. They seemed to devote much of their efforts to mitigating their losses – either by getting one case thrown out or by limiting the court’s decision to a narrow one.
Idaho adopted its law in 2020; West Virginia followed one year later. Lindsay Hecox, now 24 years old, went to federal court in Idaho to challenge that state’s law. Hecox is a transgender woman who wanted to be able to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University; she did not make those teams but later played club sports.
The West Virginia case was filed by Heather Jackson, the mother of B.P.J., a now-15-year-old transgender high school student who has publicly identified as a girl since the third grade. B.P.J. has taken puberty blockers to prevent the onset of male puberty, as well as hormone therapy with estrogen. B.P.J. has competed on the track and cross-country teams at school.
A federal appeals court in San Francisco barred Idaho from enforcing its law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed with Hecox that the law violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause because it was intended “to categorically ban transgender women and girls from public school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.” The law also discriminates on the basis of sex, the panel concluded, because athletes on girls’ and women’s teams – but not on boys’ and men’s teams – are subject “to invasive sex verification procedures to implement the law.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond issued an order that prohibited West Virginia from enforcing its law, but for a different reason. That court ruled that West Virginia’s law violates Title IX, a federal civil rights law that bars sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding, because it discriminates against B.P.J. on the basis of sex.
Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst told the justices that “Idaho’s law classifies on the basis of sex because sex is what matters in sports. It correlates strongly with countless athletic advantages, like size, muscle mass, bone mass, and heart and lung capacity.” The purpose of the state’s law, he said, is to preserve equal opportunities for women and girls in sports. “Denying special treatment isn’t classifying on the basis of transgender status,” Hurst continued. “It’s consciously choosing not to.” “All Hecox challenges,” Hurst emphasized, “is the law’s application to a tiny subset of males who identify as transgender and suppress their testosterone.”
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/01/supreme-court-appears-likely-to-uphold-transgender-athlete-bans/
