The very conservative United States Supreme Court on Thursday refused to urgently validate a law in West Virginia aimed at banning young transgender girls from enrolling in women’s teams at their schools.
• Also read: Transgender accused of unfair competition
• Also read: Athletics: Transgender people banned from women’s competitions
• Also read: In the US Congress, the conservatives are stepping up their offensive against transgender athletes
Its decision, taken by a majority of seven out of nine judges, does not go into the substance of the case and does not contain any explanations, as is usual in this type of case.
Its two most conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, expressed disagreement with the majority of their peers. “This case concerns an important matter that the court is likely to have to decide in the near future,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the closure allows a 12-year-old transgender girl, Becky Pepper-Jackson, to remain on her college racing team.
In 2021, she took legal action after her state of West Virginia passed a law barring students defined as “male” based on their “biology at birth” from competing as women in her school.
After several twists and turns, a federal appeals court decided on February 22 to freeze the law pending the merits of the case. West Virginia then urgently appealed to the Supreme Court.
“In recent years, biological men who identify as women have increasingly beaten biological women in women’s competitions,” the state wrote in its appeal, urging the court to protect “fairness” in women’s sport.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, who is receiving treatment to block her puberty, “has been on her school’s women’s team for three or four seasons and it hasn’t bothered anyone,” the girl’s attorneys countered, noting that “she always ends up at the end behind the peloton.
On Thursday, his defenders rejoiced over the decision. “We are grateful to the Supreme Court for recognizing that there was no urgency,” the powerful civil rights organization ACLU said in a press release, denouncing a “cruel and baseless appeal.”
Transgender people’s rights have been at the center of much litigation for years, but the Supreme Court has so far avoided interfering, with one exception: In 2020, it ruled against a funeral director who fired a transgender worker after her transition.