US Supreme Court to take up issue of state bans on transgender women in sports
The Supreme Court with a person holding a trans flag outside it. (Getty/Canva)
The Supreme Court with a person holding a trans flag outside it. (Getty/Canva)
The Supreme Court has announced that it will take up multiple cases concerning state bans on transgender women in sports, which in turn could potentially lead to a landmark ruling on trans rights in the US.
Way back in October 2024, before he was elected, Donald Trump vowed to ban all transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports if he were to become the next president.
On February 2025, after his inauguration, Trump signed Executive Order 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, in an attempt to ban transgender women athletes of all ages from competing on girls and women’s sports teams.
Since then, there has been an increasingly bitter back-and-forth between the administration and various states. For example, during a meeting of the governors at the White House on 22 February, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from the state of Maine after Democratic governor Janet Mills suggested she would not comply with the executive order on transgender athletes.
Trump has also threatened to withhold funds from California over the inclusion of just one trans athlete: a high school pupil named AB Hernandez.
Last month, the president left members of a top Italian football team confused after ranting at them about trans athletes. During a visit to the White House on Wednesday (18 June), while in the US for the Club World Cup, Juventus stars had to endure an awkward few minutes, during which the president asked for their views about transgender sportsmen and women.
Also, earlier this week the University of Pennsylvania erased trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ records, and promised to ban trans athletes in female sports, after reaching a ‘deal’ with the Trump administration.
According to Forbes, the Supreme Court has announced that it will hear two cases next term involving state-level bans on transgender women in sports: West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox: which concerns Idaho.
Both of these cases will ask the Supreme Court to decide whether laws that restrict participation in women’s sports based on biological sex violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
The court was asked to take up the cases after lower courts blocked the state laws, brought in to comply with Trump’s executive order, allowing those specific plaintiffs to participate in women’s sports.
However, for some reason, the Supreme Court declined to take up a third case regarding Arizona’s similar ban on transgender women in sports.
