The US Supreme Court has ruled that states may prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls' sports, in a decision handed down on the final day of the term. In a 6 to 3 ruling, the court found that laws drawing that line do not violate the Constitution and do not violate Title IX, the landmark civil rights law meant to promote equal opportunity in sports.
The case turned on a single question, whether a state can tell a transgender girl that she is not allowed to play in girls' sports. It was brought by two transgender athletes, including a 15-year-old in West Virginia who is described as the only openly transgender athlete in any sport in her state. The ruling applies against the backdrop of the roughly 29 states, among them West Virginia and Idaho, that have laws or regulations restricting such participation.
Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that dividing students along the lines of biological sex is not inherently illegal. He acknowledged that the issue is sensitive and divisive, but concluded that in the states that have enacted these rules there is nothing unlawful about the approach, given what the scientific community describes as competitive advantages in physically demanding sports.
The court's three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, though in relatively muted terms. They agreed with their conservative colleagues that the bans do not violate Title IX, but said that whether the laws violate the Constitution remains an open question. They would have sent the case back for further fact finding.
According to studies cited in the reporting, about 122,000 transgender teenagers in the United States participate in high school sports, a relatively small share of the overall universe of student athletes but a significant number nonetheless. With the ruling, the bans that had been challenged are now set to take effect in the affected states.
The decision was welcomed in states such as West Virginia that had sought to draw these lines, and a number of women's rights advocates celebrated it as a protection for women's sports and for the opportunities that Title IX has provided over the past 50 years. The president, who has campaigned on the issue, described the outcome as a big win.
For families directly affected by the bans, the reaction was very different. Supporters of the transgender athletes described the ruling as devastating, noting that the 15-year-old West Virginia athlete at the center of the case, who recently won a state championship in shot put and says she has never undergone male puberty, will now be sidelined from a sport in which she has found meaning and friendship.