Supreme Court lets states ban transgender athletes from female sports teams

WASHINGTON – States can ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams, the Supreme Court ruled June 30 in addressing a major cultural and political flashpoint before adjourning for the summer.

The decision is another setback for the LGBTQ+ community from the high court, which has issued a series of recent rulings affecting transgender Americans.

The court said West Virginia's and Idaho's bans on female transgender athletes do not violate either the Constitution or a federal law barring sex discrimination in education.

Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said schools "may determine eligibility for women's and girls' sports based on biological sex."

"Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable," he wrote.

In a partial dissent that was joined by her two liberal colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she would have given the student challenging West Virginia's law a chance to show that the ban should not apply to her.

"In opting otherwise, the majority extends great sympathy to those it favors: the young cisgender girls and women who play sports," she wrote. "Because the majority, however, inflicts a hardship on those it disfavors without giving them the fair and full opportunity the Constitution requires to litigate their contentions, I respectfully dissent."

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey called the decision a "monumental victory for every female athlete who has ever competed, or dreamed of competing, on a fair and safe playing field."

"This landmark victory will give all states, not just West Virginia, the clarity and confidence to ensure fairness and safety for female athletes today and for generations to come," McCuskey said in a statement.

Twenty-seven states have passed similar bans, saying they are trying to ensure fairness and address safety concerns for non-transgender women.

The transgender students who challenged the laws said hormone therapy and other medical treatments they've taken have blocked any physiological advantages from being born male. The laws, they said, should not apply to them for that reason.

The students were also banking on a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision protecting transgender employees from workplace discrimination.

But since that unexpected 6-3 decision by a conservative court, the justices have often ruled against transgender Americans. That includes their 2025 decision that states can ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Trump backed state bans

The court's latest decision – one of the most anticipated of the term − came amid a broad effort by President Donald Trump to target transgender people.

Trump's opposition to transgender women competing on female teams was a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign and, as president, he has moved to cut off federal funding to schools that allow transgender females to participate in girls' and women's sports.

The Justice Department helped West Virginia and Idaho defend their bans before the Supreme Court.

Although the administration is separately trying to stop states from allowing transgender girls to compete on female teams, the Justice Department urged the court to decide for now only that bans are allowed and not get into whether they're required.

Lower courts sided with the trans athletes

The intense public spotlight and increasing criticism of transgender athletes prompted Lindsay Hecox, a student at Boise State University, to try to abandon her challenge to Idaho's law before the high court considered it.

Two appeals courts had sided with the transgender students at early stages of the litigation, blocking enforcement of the laws as the challenges continued.

Because her testosterone is being suppressed and she is getting estrogen, Hecox said, her testosterone levels are typical of non-transgender women and her muscle mass and size, which presumably may have given her an advantage, had both decreased.

Are the laws 'overreacting'?

Before withdrawing from sports this school year, Hecox played soccer and ran on school club teams, the "no-cut" sports she turned to because she wasn't fast enough to make the competitive NCAA cross-country and track teams, according to her lawyers.

"I think this is an important moment to just take a step back and say, 'Is this law actually responding to a problem in a rational manner, or is it actually overreacting on the presumption that transgender women are categorically going to be strong athletes when that's not the case?'" Kathleen Hartnett, an attorney for Hecox, told the court.

She argued students like Hecox could be required to have their testosterone levels tested as a work-around to a complete ban, but Idaho's attorney said states shouldn't have to make that accommodation.

"Idaho's law is a substantial fit for 99% of males, and a perfect fit is not required," Idaho's solicitor general, Alan Hurst, told the court.

West Virginia student blocked male puberty

Becky Pepper-Jackson, who began her challenge to West Virginia's law when she was entering middle school, takes puberty-delaying medication and estrogen.

Still, West Virginia argued Pepper-Jackson retained a physical advantage that, as a high school freshman, helped her place third in a state discus throwing competition and eighth in shot last year.

Pepper-Jackson attributed her athletic achievements to hard work and practice and said her performance is "well within the range" of non-transgender girls her age.

Her lawyer argued that the justices should send the case back to U.S. District Court for a trial to determine whether she has an advantage over teammates or rivals who were identified as girls at birth.

"And then we'll have the facts in front of us. And maybe they'll make the issue go away," Joshua Block, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented Pepper-Jackson, said in oral arguments. "I think it's unnecessary to, you know, intervene at this instance with a sweeping legal conclusion to something that might actually be a narrow factual dispute."

Michael Williams, the attorney for West Virginia countered that state legislatures, not courts, have the primary responsibility for weighing evidence and making policy judgments in "areas of evolving science and medicine, especially involving children."

Polls show support for trans athlete bans

Polls show broad public support for requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth.

Idaho and West Virginia described the participation of transgender athletes in female sports as a significant problem, but advocates said the scope of the dispute has been blown out of proportion.

Pepper-Jackson, for example, was the only transgender student in West Virginia who sought to participate on girls' teams.

Block, her attorney, called the court's decision "heartbreaking."

"The reality is that the equality of transgender women and girls takes nothing away from, and in fact promotes, the equality of all women and girls," Block said in a statement.

Kavanaugh, who coached his daughters in basketball, said during the oral arguments that he hates the idea that a kid who wants to play sports may not be able to. But if a transgender girl makes a team or a starting lineup, she will bump someone else, he said.

"And I think we can't sweep that aside," Kavanaugh added.

Kavanaugh emphasized that point in his opinion but also made a plea for respect for the transgender athletes who have been at the center of the contentious national debate.

"Those student athletes want to play sports. Their desire to compete warrants respect," he wrote. "No student-athlete on either side of the issues, whether a biological female or transgender, deserves to be ostracized or vilified."

There are no definitive statistics about how many students are affected by the bans.

In 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes competing in all college sports across U.S. campuses.

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a think tank that researches sexual orientation and gender identity, estimates that as many as 122,000 transgender young people could be participating in high-school-level team athletics. At the college level, fewer than 1.5% of student athletes are probably transgender, according to the institute.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court lets states ban transgender athletes from female sports teams

Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 10:01 AM.