The US Supreme Court has agreed to review whether state laws can ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
The case concerns laws in Idaho and West Virginia, where two transgender students won injunctions from lower courts allowing them to continue competing.
How the top court rules could have significant implications across the country.
It comes two weeks after the conservative majority court upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender transition care for young people – a ruling that some advocates say delivered a major blow to transgender rights in the US.
The Supreme Court will review the cases of Becky Pepper-Jackson, 15, and Lindsay Hecox, 24, who successfully challenged state bans in West Virginia and Idaho by arguing they were discriminatory.
Idaho was the first state to pass a law prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women and girls’ sports. Two dozen other states have since followed.
Ms Hecox, a long distance runner, lodged a legal challenge against the Idaho law in 2020 shortly after it was enacted. She was later granted an injunction by both a district court and an appeals court.
State lawmaker Barbara Ehardt, who introduced the law, said at the time of its passing that it would ensure “boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair”.
But in the appeals ruling, a panel of three judges found that the Idaho law violated constitutional rights, and that the state had “failed” to provide evidence that the law protects “sex equality and opportunity for women athletes.”
West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey backed the top court’s intervention.
“The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this common sense law preserving women’s sports for women,” he said.
Joshua Block of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing the athletes, insisted lower courts were correct to block the “discriminatory laws”.
“Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth,” he said.
How the Supreme Court decides to rule on the issue will likely impact other states that have similar bans in place.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year that aimed to ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams.
The Supreme Court will hear the challenges during its next term, which begins in October. A hearing date has not yet been set.