The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases this fall on state bans that keep transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports.
This comes just weeks after the justices upheld state bans on gender-related medical treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for transgender youth.
The issue of transgender students students participating in girls sports has become a cultural flashpoint often referenced by President Donald Trump. He signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in sports in public schools in February.
More than two dozen states have enacted laws that ban transgender athletes from playing on some sports teams, with courts blocking some of those policies, The Associated Press reported.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments for the cases in its next term, which begins in October.
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., West Virginia appealed a lower court’s ruling that said banning a transgender student from participating in sporting competitions violates the student’s rights. An appeals court ruled in the student’s favor, citing the Constitution’s equal protection clause and the Title IX sex discrimination in education law.
An Idaho case, Little v. Hecox, will also be heard on the same issue.
This latest move by the court follows a major ruling on transgender issues by the Supreme Court in the session that just ended. In United States v. Skrmetti, the justices upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-related medical treatment for transgender minors. The case could impact about two dozen other states that have similar restrictions, including Utah.
