WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday considered an increase in controversy over transgender athletes and agreed to determine whether federal law would fill transgender girls in girls’ school sports teams.
“Biological boys should not compete on women’s track and field teams,” the West Virginia Attorney General said in an appeal that the court voted to hear.
The appeal was supported by 26 other Republican-led states, as well as President Trump.
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened to cut off education funds for California as trans athletes participated in women’s track and field.
Four years ago, West Virginia adopted the Save Women’s Sports Act, which was blocked by the Fourth Circuit as discriminatory in a 2-1 decision.
Idaho filed a similar appeal after the law was blocked by San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit. The court said they would hear the case along with the West Virginia case.
The problem is the meaning of Title IX, a federal education law believed to have opened the door for a significant expansion of women’s sports. It was said that schools and universities must give girls equal opportunities to track and field by providing independent sports teams.
However, over the past decade, the state and its schools have been divided into question of who can participate in the girls’ team. Is it just someone who was a girl at birth?
West Virginia told the court, “Congress concluded that biological boys should compete in juvenile and Republic teams, but not women’s teams. This separation makes sense, Congress found that because of “the inherent physical differences between biological men and biological women.”
California and most democratic states allow transgender girls to compete in sports competitions for women.
In 2013, the Congress shall be permitted to “be allowed to participate in activities including school programs of gender and athletic teams and competitions.”
The Supreme Court had put off decisions on the issue while the gap between states grew.
Two years ago, the judge turned down a fast truck complaint from a West Virginia lawyer by 7-2 votes, allowing a 12-year-old transgender girl to run for the women’s cross-country team.
Becky Pepper Jackson and her mother sued after the school’s principal said state law prohibited them from competing in the girls’ team at Bridgeport, West Virginia.
She “has lived as a girl for years in all aspects of her life, receiving treatment that would delay puberty and estrogen hormone therapy, so she has not (and does not experience) endogenous puberty,” her mother said in support of the lawsuit.
ACLU lawyers said the court should stand aside. They said that BPJ was keen to participate in the sport, but that it was “too late to compete in track events” on the women’s team.
Last year, West Virginia tried again, urging the Supreme Court to consider the Fourth Circuit decision and maintain restrictions on transgender athletes.
The state lawyer also said middle school athletes have become track stars.
“This spring, BPJ placed the top three in all track events, with BPJ competing for the most wins. BPJ beat more than 100 girls, denying multiple girls spots and medals in the conference championship, and BPJ was second most shocking, winning shots over 3 feet.
Last year, the court chose to take control first in a Tennessee case to decide whether the state could ban adolescent blockers, hormones and other treatments for young teens diagnosed with gender discomfort.
On June 18, a conservative court majority said state legislators have the authority to limit medical treatment for adolescents diagnosed with gender discomfort, noting on the ongoing debate on long-term risks and benefits. The ruling put aside the allegation that the law reflects unconstitutional sex discrimination.
On Thursday, the judge announced the final order list before the summer break, allowing reviews of new cases to be heard in the fall. The cases included West Virginia vs BJP and Little vs Hecox.
In response to the appeal, ACLU lawyers accused them of seeking to “create a false sense of national emergency” based on “legal challenges by transgender girls.”
The lawsuit said the state’s measures are “part of a coordinated national effort to target transgender youth for unequal treatment.” The lawsuit was unconstitutional because it allegedly violated Title IX and discriminated against student-athletes based on gender identity.
West Virginia lawyers saw the threats to Title IX and women’s sports.
They said the ruling in favour of trans rights “takes a law designed to ensure meaningful competitive opportunities for women and girls based on biological differences, and that men swarmed into girls’ sports teams based on their identity and made it a lever to destroy the opportunities that Title IX intended to protect.”
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