The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that states may ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams, handing conservatives a major win in one of the country’s fiercest culture-war fights.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho that limit girls’ and women’s sports teams based on biological sex.
The court said the bans do not violate the Constitution or Title IX, the 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.”
The ruling came on the final day of the court’s term and marked another setback for transgender-rights advocates after a string of recent high court decisions against transgender Americans.
Twenty-seven states have passed similar bans, arguing the laws are needed to protect fairness and safety for women and girls.
West Virginia’s and Idaho’s laws are based on an athlete’s “biological sex,” defined as sex assigned at birth.
The laws do not consider an athlete’s individual ability or how far the person has transitioned.
The transgender students who challenged the laws argued that hormone therapy and other medical treatments had blocked any physiological advantages from being born male.
They said the bans should not apply to them for that reason.
The students also relied on the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision protecting gay, lesbian and transgender employees from workplace discrimination.
But since that ruling, the court has repeatedly rejected arguments advanced by transgender-rights advocates, including in a 2025 decision allowing states to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
President Donald Trump strongly backed state bans on transgender athletes competing in female sports.
Opposition to transgender women competing on women’s teams became a major theme of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has moved to cut off federal funding to schools that allow transgender females to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
The Justice Department also helped West Virginia and Idaho defend their bans before the Supreme Court.
The administration urged the justices to rule that the bans are allowed, while avoiding a broader decision on whether states are required to impose them.
The case initially included challenges from transgender students in both Idaho and West Virginia.
But after oral arguments in January, the justices allowed Boise State University student Lindsay Hecox to withdraw from the Idaho case, leaving the final ruling centered on the West Virginia dispute.
Lower courts had sided with the transgender students earlier in the litigation, blocking enforcement of the laws while the cases moved forward.
Hecox had argued that her testosterone was being suppressed and that estrogen treatments reduced her muscle mass and size.
Her lawyers said she played soccer and ran on club teams after being unable to make competitive NCAA cross-country and track teams.
“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.
Hartnett argued that testosterone testing could be used as an alternative to a blanket ban.
Idaho’s solicitor general, Alan Hurst, countered that states should not be forced to make that accommodation.
“Idaho’s law is a substantial fit for 99 percent of males, and a perfect fit is not required,” Idaho’s solicitor general, Alan Hurst, told the court.
The West Virginia case involved high school student Becky Pepper-Jackson, who began challenging the state law when she was entering middle school.
Pepper-Jackson takes puberty-delaying medication and estrogen.
West Virginia argued that Pepper-Jackson still retained a physical advantage and cited athletic results in discus and shot put competitions.
Pepper-Jackson said those results came from hard work and practice and were “well within the range” of non-transgender girls her age.
Her lawyer urged the court to send the case back for a trial to determine whether she actually had an advantage over teammates or competitors 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 ACLU attorney who represented Pepper-Jackson, said during 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.”
West Virginia attorney Michael Williams argued that state legislatures, not courts, should weigh the evidence and make policy decisions in “areas of evolving science and medicine, especially involving children.”
Polls have shown broad public support for requiring athletes to compete on teams matching their sex assigned at birth.
Supporters of the bans say the issue is about protecting girls’ sports from unfair competition.
Opponents argue the number of transgender athletes is small and that the political fight has been exaggerated.
Pepper-Jackson, for example, was the only transgender student in West Virginia who sought to compete on girls’ teams.
Kavanaugh, who coached his daughters in basketball, said during oral arguments that he disliked the idea of any child being unable to play sports.
But he also said courts could not ignore the reality that if a transgender girl makes a team or starting lineup, another girl may lose that spot.
“And I think we can’t sweep that aside,” Kavanaugh added.
There are no definitive national numbers on how many students are affected by the bans.
In 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel he knew of fewer than 10 transgender athletes competing across all college sports in the U.S.
The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law has estimated that as many as 122,000 transgender youth could be participating in high school-level team athletics.
At the college level, less than 1.5% of student athletes are likely transgender, according to the institute.
The ruling is a major victory for Trump, Republican-led states and parents who have argued that women’s sports should be reserved for biological females.
It also sends a clear message to lower courts: states have room to draw the line on eligibility for girls’ and women’s teams based on biological sex.
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