Donald Trump has celebrated a ‘big win’ as the Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for states to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
‘The United States Supreme Court just ruled against men playing in women’s sports. Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!’ the President wrote on Truth Social.
The ruling overturned decisions by lower courts in siding with trans students who challenged bans in Idaho and West Virginia as violating the Constitution and a federal anti-discrimination law.
The conservative majority voted 6-3 that the bans do not violate the Constitution.
The court unanimously agreed that barring trans people did not violate the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the decision that ‘states may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females.’
The high-profile ruling, which allows schools in two states to determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports teams based on the gender they are assigned at birth, is expected to have widespread implications for the rest of the country.
Trump seized on transgender issues as he campaigned for a second White House term in 2024, and vowed to punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tied for fifth place in the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
Gaines is known for campaigning against the participation of trans women in women’s sports
His campaign notably spent $11 million on campaign ads targeting then-Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s transgender policies.
‘The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse,’ Trump said in a Truth Social video posted ahead of the 2024 elections. ‘
‘Very simple,’ he added. ‘Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth.’
The Supreme Court in January heard nearly four hours of oral arguments in the cases.
They centered on the legality of two state laws in Idaho and West Virginia, which prohibit female-identifying transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Lower courts had struck down both the West Virginia and Idaho laws, ruling that they violate Title IX and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution, respectively – prompting the GOP-led states to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court for review.
Conservative justices appeared inclined to side with the states during oral arguments and let their laws remain in place, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who seemed to indicate unease about the federal judiciary weighing in on a state issue.
Idaho’s law, enacted in 2020, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, imposed a flat ban on transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams in public schools at all levels, ranging from elementary school to college.
West Virginia, meanwhile, passed its Save Women’s Sports Act law in 2021. It bars transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams in public secondary schools and public colleges.
Protesters outside the Supreme Court in January as it weighed state efforts to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams
Just last month, a controversial transgender high school track star blew the competition away in three events at a competition in California.
AB Hernandez, who was born male, won the girls’ high jump, long jump and triple jump events at Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) Southern Section Track and Field Masters meet at Moorpark High School in Ventura County.
Infamous trans athlete Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as female, has become the face of the movement, speaking out against Trump and the administration.
Thomas competed for the University of Pennsylvania women’s team in 2021-22 and won a national championship, having previously been on the men’s team. She competed against now-conservative activist Riley Gaines.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez jumped a foot higher than the nearest rival in a recent long jump competition
Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court in January as justices looked at the two state laws banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams
Gaines speaking outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, in January
Hernandez dominated the long jump, triple jump and high jump events in California last month
Thomas has slammed campaigners who try to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports
Her participation was a significant moment in the debate around transgender athletes, with female competitors sympathizing with Thomas but unhappy at sharing a locker room with her and questioning how fair it was to be racing her.
In turn, it made Thomas one of the athletes most closely associated with the heated debate on both sides.
‘You don’t get to pick and choose when you see me as a woman,’ Thomas previously said. ‘You don’t get to say, “You can be a woman in these situations, but not in these,” because you would never do that to a cis woman.’
