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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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A ruling on whether transgender athletes can participate in women’s and girls' sports could divide the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices.
The High Court heard oral arguments on two cases related to the matter on Tuesday. At least five of the six conservative justices indicated they would rule that bans on transgender athletes’ participation in women’s and girls’ sports do not violate the Constitution or Title IX, the Associated Press reported. The Title IX law prohibits discrimination in education.
The court’s three liberal justices seemed focused on trying to secure a majority in support of a narrow ruling to allow the cases' athletes the freedom to compete, the Associated Press reported.
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Why It Matters
The case comes amid larger national debates about the rights of transgender individuals. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, the day of his second inauguration, establishing that gender identity "cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex," which the order defines as "not changeable" and "grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."
In the past year, the Supreme Court upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youths and allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced.
What To Know
The two cases originated in Idaho and West Virginia, which were among the first of the more than two dozen Republican-led states that have banned transgender athletes from joining girls' and women’s teams. Lower courts in both states ruled in favor of the transgender athletes who challenged the bans.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is one of the most closely watched jurists in this case. He delivered the majority opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, a case decided in 2020 in which the High Court ruled that an employer firing a person merely for being gay or transgender is a violation of Title VII.
"The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids," Gorsuch wrote in the decision.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the majority. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court after the case was decided.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined Gorsuch in the majority in Bostock, questioned whether the 2020 ruling could be applied to the current cases.
“The question here is whether or not a sex-based classification is necessarily a transgender classification,” he said.
What People Are Saying
Kavanaugh, during oral arguments: "For the individual girl who does not make the team or doesn't get on the stand for the medal or doesn't make all-league, there's a harm there, and I think we can't sweep that aside."
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, during oral arguments: "I would think the state would just have to make exceptions where people can demonstrate that the justification that makes the state's conduct constitutional doesn't apply to them."
What Happens Next
The Supreme Court has yet to issue rulings in the cases.
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