A ruling against two athletes in West Virginia and Idaho could have far-reaching implications for civil rights
The US supreme court is considering the rights of transgender youth athletes on Tuesday in a major hearing on state laws banning trans girls from girls sports teams.
Oral arguments center on two cases of trans students who sued over the Republican-backed laws in Idaho and West Virginia prohibiting them from participating in girls athletic programs. The cases could have far-reaching implications for civil rights, with a ruling against the athletes potentially eroding a range of protections for trans youth and LGBTQ+ people more broadly.
In West Virginia v BPJ, 15-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson challenged the state’s 2021 law banning her from track. A federal court blocked the ban, but the state appealed to the supreme court.
In the second case, Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a trans college student pursuing track, sued to overturn Idaho’s first-in-the-nation 2020 law categorically banning trans women and girls from women’s sports teams. She has since pushed to have the case dismissed, saying she is not doing sports in college and doesn’t want further harassment, but the supreme court is still hearing the matter.
