Supreme Court takes up cases on transgender athletes

The Supreme Court on Thursday added two cases on transgender athletes to its docket for the 2025-26 term. In Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., the justices will consider whether state laws restricting participation in girls’ and women’s sports to athletes who were born female violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment or, in the West Virginia case, Title IX. 

The cases will likely be among the most closely watched of the upcoming term, and they come on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision upholding Tennessee’s ban on certain medical treatments for transgender minors in United States v. Skrmetti, which was released on June 18. In that case, the court’s six Republican-appointed justices said the ban did not need to satisfy heightened scrutiny and did not violate the equal protection clause because it classifies patients based on age and medical diagnosis, not on sex. 

In the two cases granted Thursday, the justices will again consider when laws regarding transgender rights must satisfy heightened scrutiny under the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The states involved – Idaho in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia in West Virginia v. B.P.J. – claim that courts should assess their transgender sports policies using a less stringent legal standard and that the equal protection clause has long been held to allow sex-separated sports teams. 

The Idaho case centers on the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which draws “an across-the-board distinction based on sex,” preventing transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports leagues, as the state’s petition for a writ of certiorari explained. The act was challenged by a transgender college student, who secured an injunction from the district court, which was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The 9th Circuit applied heightened scrutiny and concluded that the act likely violates the equal protection clause. 

In the West Virginia case, a transgender teen challenged the state’s Save Women’s Sports Act, which bars athletes who were born male from participating on girls’ sports teams in competitive and/or contact sports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in the teen’s favor, deciding that the act violates Title IX.  

The cases granted on Thursday will likely be argued this fall. The court’s decision isn’t expected to come before 2026.