US Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender athletes in school sports

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6–3 ruling that upholds state bans in Idaho and West Virginia prohibiting transgender girls and women from competing on female school and college teams. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion, stating that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause allow states to maintain separate women's sports for “biological females.”

The decision reversed lower‑court injunctions that had permitted two transgender students, Lindsay Hecox and Becky Pepper‑Jackson, to participate, and it leaves the authority to set eligibility rules to individual states. The ruling affects roughly 25 states with similar bans while leaving the policies of 21 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories that allow transgender athletes to compete unchanged. Legal experts say the case will likely fuel further state‑level legal and political battles over transgender student rights.