Supreme Court Upholds Bans on Transgender Athletes

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws banning transgender-identifying athletes from competing on female school sports teams, ruling that the restrictions in Idaho and West Virginia are constitutional and do not violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.

The court's 6-3 conservative majority concluded that states may limit girls' and women's sports to biological females. 

The ruling is expected to reinforce similar laws in more than two dozen Republican-led states that have enacted restrictions on transgender athletes. However, it does not resolve legal challenges to laws and policies in states such as Connecticut and California that allow transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity.

The court unanimously agreed that the state bans do not conflict with Title IX.

The West Virginia case centered on Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 16-year-old high school student who has publicly identified as a girl since age 8, has taken puberty-blocking medication and holds a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. Pepper-Jackson, the only transgender athlete to seek participation in girls' sports in the state, recently won the state shot put championship after previously competing as a middle-of-the-pack cross-country runner.

The Idaho case involved Lindsay Hecox, who challenged the nation's first statewide ban on transgender women competing in female school sports. Hecox sought the opportunity to try out for Boise State University's women's track and cross-country teams but did not make either roster. Her attorney later argued that she had abandoned plans to compete in women's teams.

State officials defended the laws as necessary to preserve fairness in women's sports. Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst argued the restrictions are justified because "where sports are concerned, men and women are obviously not the same."

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argued their client does not possess the physical advantages the state attributes to transgender athletes because of her early medical transition.

The issue has drawn support and opposition from prominent athletes. Tennis great Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona, and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings supported the state bans. Soccer players Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn, along with basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, supported transgender athletes' participation.

President Donald Trump praised the ruling in a social media post, calling it a "BIG WIN."

The debate has taken on national prominence, and public opinion has generally favored restrictions. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults supported requiring transgender children and teenagers to compete on teams matching the sex assigned at birth, while about 2 in 10 opposed the policy and roughly one-quarter had no opinion.

According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, approximately 2.1 million U.S. adults, or 0.8% of the population, and about 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender.