Although a lawsuit challenging a statewide ban is being heard by an appeals court, the US Supreme Court found that a transgender girl can compete on her middle school’s track team.
West Virginia’s prohibition on transgender sports, which was passed into law in 2021, is being challenged in court by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old transgender pupil there.
According to the Preserve Women’s Sports Act, a person’s ability to join an athletic team “must be purely based on the individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Students who are born male can play on male and coed teams, whereas students who are born female can participate on male, female, and coed teams, according to the law.
Pepper-Jackson challenged the law a month after it was passed in 2021. She received support from the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights group.
Her lawyers argued that West Virginia’s law violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as federal civil rights law under Title IX – which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
A district court in Charleston, West Virginia initially sided with the state, but Pepper-Jackson appealed the case.
The Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals is currently considering her lawsuit. During this process, the court ruled Pepper-Jackson can continue competing on the girls’ team.
West Virginia’s Attorney General Patrick Morrissey filed an emergency appeal, asking the Supreme Court to intervene before oral arguments were heard.
The Supreme Court refused to overturn the Circuit Court’s ruling, paving the way for Pepper-Jackson to continue competing in the current outdoor track season.
The court provided no reasoning for its decision.
Only two justices dissented, conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
‘Enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation,’ Justice Alito wrote in his dissenting opinion.