Supreme Court halts enforcement of West Virginia law barring transgender student from girls' sports

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against West Virginia's efforts to prevent a transgender student from participating in girls' sports, leaving the 2021 Save Women's Sports Act unenforceable against 12-year-old transgender Becky Pepper-Jackson, who is biologically male, while litigation continues.

As a result, the Save Women's Sports Act, enacted in 2021, cannot be enforced against the 12-year-old while litigation proceeds.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas noted their disagreement with the decision, with Alito criticizing a lower court's lack of explanation for its reasoning. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, expressed confidence in ultimately prevailing in the case, despite this procedural setback.

The law in question prohibits transgender girls from participating in girls' sports at middle school, high school, and college levels, defining gender based on an individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth. Under the law, a female is considered a person whose biological sex is determined at birth as female, NBC News reported.

Trans athlete Pepper-Jackson, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ group Lambda Legal, challenged the law when in trying to try out for cross country and track teams in middle school. Pepper-Jackson’s lawyers argue that the law violates the 14th Amendment, which mandates equal application of the law, and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Pepper-Jackson is currently undergoing puberty-delaying treatment and hormone therapy. "A federal judge initially ruled in Pepper-Jackson’s favor but later decided in January that the law was likely legal and allowed it to be enforced," according to NBC.

In response, Pepper-Jackson appealed, and last month, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals once again blocked the state from applying the law.

West Virginia's lawyers argue that if the law is not enforced against Pepper-Jackson, sex-separated sports in West Virginia public schools and universities would effectively become illegal.

The law, supported by the conservative religious legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, is one of several measures enacted by Republican states to restrict transgender athletes' participation in sports. Nearly 20 states have enacted similar transgender sports bans, with most currently in effect.

In a related development, Tennessee and other states have challenged the Biden administration's guidance on Title IX, which interprets the law as barring discrimination in education based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Alabama and 20 other states, as well as female athletes such as tennis star Martina Navratilova, filed a brief supporting West Virginia.

The Supreme Court's 2020 ruling that federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment protects LGBT people has angered conservatives.

The Court has not yet determined whether the same reasoning applies to Title IX. In 2021, the Court declined to hear a case on whether transgender students can use school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities.