The United States Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving state bans on men in women's sports, according to the Wall Street Journal.
One of the cases comes from Boise State University in Idaho, where a man was prevented from competing in women's track events. The plaintiff argues that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The other case comes from West Virginia, where a 12-year-old boy was barred from competing on the girls' middle school track team.
West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said in a statement:
It’s a great day, as female athletes in West Virginia will have their voices heard. The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this common sense law preserving women’s sports for women.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing the plaintiffs in the case, is arguing that the bans unfairly target 'transgender' children. Joshua Block, an attorney for the ACLU said:
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,
In a recent ruling, United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on 'transgender' medical treatments for minors. The Court applied the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny, rational basis review, concluding that the state had a legitimate governmental interest in enforcing the ban.
They refused to determine whether so-called transgender individuals were entitled to expanded legal protections as a protected class. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in concurrence with the majority opinion that 'transgender' should not qualify as a protected class, but it was not adopted as the rationale of the Court.
These new cases could very well allow the Court to put that issue to rest.
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