West Virginia, Idaho asking Supreme Court to review rulings allowing transgender athletes to compete

West Virginia and Idaho are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review rulings that blocked the enforcement of state laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports.

“If the Supreme Court takes this up, it will determine the fate of women’s sports across the entire country for many years to come,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Thursday at a briefing with reporters at the state Capitol in Charleston.

It’s unclear when the high court would decide whether to take up the cases, which were filed separately Thursday and involve transgender athletes who hoped to compete on female-designated teams at the K-12 and college level, respectively.

In the West Virginia case, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 in April that the state’s transgender sports ban violated Becky Pepper-Jackson’s rights under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. Jackson, 14, has been taking puberty-blocking medication and publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade.

West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed the law into effect in 2021.

Idaho in 2020 became the first state in the nation to ban transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. The American Civil Liberties Union and the women’s rights group Legal Voice sued Idaho on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, who hoped to run for Boise State University.

A Boise-area high school athlete who is not transgender is also a plaintiff in the case because she fears the law could force her to undergo invasive tests to prove her biological sex if someone questions her gender.

In August 2023, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of