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(Trends Wide) — The US Supreme Court on Thursday denied West Virginia’s petition to fully enforce a state law that prohibits transgender women and girls from participating in public school sports teams based on their gender identity.
In an unsigned order, the court denied West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s emergency request that the state be allowed to enforce the 2021 law. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, saying they would have agreed before the request.
Earlier this year, a lower federal court ordered the state to temporarily halt the ban against Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old transgender girl who sued the state over the law shortly after it passed.
Pepper-Jackson was able to compete on her high school’s cross country and track teams thanks to the lower court’s injunction. Now, the decision of the Supreme Court to deny the urgent request implies that she will be able to continue doing so.
“We are grateful that the Supreme Court today recognized that there was no emergency and that Becky should be able to continue to participate with her peers on her high school track team, which she has been doing without incident for three or four seasons.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia and Lambda Legal, which represent Pepper-Jackson, said in a statement.
Although the law has been in place since 2021, Pepper-Jackson’s attorneys said in recent court filings that the state is “not aware of any transgender students who want to play school sports in West Virginia other than her.”
Morrisey described the Court’s decision as a “procedural setback” in a statement Thursday, adding: “But we remain confident that when this case is ultimately decided, we will prevail.”
The court took an unusually long time to respond to the request, filed nearly a month ago.
In his two-page dissent, Alito noted that the issue could come before the magistrates soon.
“This request addresses an important question that this Court is likely to have to address in the near future, namely, whether Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972… or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibit for a state to restrict women’s or girls’ participation in sports based on genes or physiological or anatomical characteristics,” he wrote.
Alito also wrote: “Among other things, the application of the law in question should not be prohibited by federal courts without explanation.”
Trends Wide Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck said, “It’s entirely possible that the court will stay out of this dispute for now not because it sympathizes with the plaintiff on the merits, but because of procedural concerns. with West Virginia’s behavior in this litigation”.
“Thus, this Thursday’s ruling is likely not so much a harbinger of how the Court will address state laws restricting transgender athletes from participating in public school sports teams, but rather a reflection of a divisive among conservative judges about when they should — and when they shouldn’t — matter those procedural issues,” added Vladeck, who is a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
First time coming to court
West Virginia’s petition to the Supreme Court marked the first time the sports issue has reached the highest court of Justice. Resolutions like HB 3293 have gained considerable momentum in GOP-led states in recent years, with more than a dozen enacting similar bans since 2020.
Two years ago, judges stayed out of a dispute over whether a trans student could use the bathroom that matched their gender identity. Still, in a 6-3 decision a year earlier, the court had expanded workplace protections for gay, lesbian and transgender workers, handing a key victory to LGBTQ Americans.
West Virginia law states that athletic teams at “any public high school or state institution of higher learning must be designated on the basis of “biological sex,” thereby prohibiting trans women and girls from participating in women’s athletic teams “where skill is involved.” competitive or contact”.
“This Court should quash the Fourth Circuit injunction and allow the Act to continue to protect West Virginia student athletes this spring and beyond,” wrote Morrisey and attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents a former college athlete who intervened in the case on behalf of West Virginia, in its emergency petition to the court last month.
“This case involves an issue charged with emotions and differing perspectives. That is one more reason to defer to state legislators pending appeal,” the lawyers told the court. “The decision was made by the West Virginia legislature. The end of this litigation will confirm that it was a valid decision.”
However, Pepper-Jackson’s lawyers argued in court documents that the state’s claim that it is being harmed by the appellate court’s injunction against the law is unfounded.
“In short, the request does not approach the type of urgent and compelling circumstances required for extraordinary relief from this Court,” they wrote. “There is no basis for this Court to order BPJ off the playing field where he has been for his entire middle school career to date and where his presence does no harm to anyone.”
Several friends-of-the-court briefs in support of West Virginia’s petition were filed with the Supreme Court, one signed by several famous athletes, including tennis player Martina Navratilova and Olympic champions Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona.
“By drawing the attention of this Court to their names, their voices, and their personal stories, the amici hope to highlight the petition of women and girls across the country: that this Court affirm their permanent right to equal opportunity and carved in granite that women cannot be at a clear and specific disadvantage due to their biological sex,” the lawyers for the athletes wrote in the brief.
In addition to West Virginia, other Republican-controlled states have enacted similar sports bans, eight of them by 2022 alone. In pushing these measures, conservatives have argued that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over cisgender women and girls in sports. sports, though a 2017 report found “no direct or consistent research” on such an advantage.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Trends Wide’s Ariane de Vogue contributed to this report.
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