US Supreme Court appears likely to uphold restrictions on transgender athletes

BBC:

A majority of the nine justices on the US Supreme Court appear inclined to uphold state bans on transgender women and girls competing in female school sports.

During oral arguments on Tuesday, the court considered cases from students in two different states who are challenging bans on participation. Both states require public school and collegiate sports teams to be designated based on sex recorded at birth.

In Idaho, a transgender college student argues the ban violates her constitutional equal rights protections. A West Virginia high school student also alleges that the state’s ban runs counter to federal civil rights law.

During more than three hours of arguments, at least five of the justices appeared to favour upholding the bans. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

In 2020, Idaho became the first state to implement a ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s and girls’ sports. Currently, more than two dozen states have similar legislation.

“Idaho’s law classifies on the basis of sex, because sex is what matters in sports,” said Alan Hurst, the Idaho solicitor general who argued for the state. “It correlates strongly with countless athletic advantages, like size, muscle mass, bone mass and heart and lung capacity.”

“We have to decide for the whole country,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of conservatives on the court. “When half the states are allowing transgender athletes to participate, half are not, why would we jump in and try to constitutionalise a role while there is still… uncertainty and debate?”

With six conservative, Republican-appointed justices who may be more inclined to side with the states, the court’s three liberals and the lawyers representing the two athletes tended to argue for a narrow decision on Wednesday – or no decision at all.

One of the athletes, Lindsay Hecox, a senior at Boise State University, has said she no longer wants to compete in university-sponsored sport and has attempted to withdraw her lawsuit. Justice Katanji Brown Jackson repeatedly asked why that case had not been dismissed because of this.