Supreme Court Faces High-Stakes Women’s Sports Case

Clear Facts

• The Supreme Court will hear arguments on laws in West Virginia and Idaho that restrict biological men from competing in women’s sports.
• Lainey Armistead, a former women’s soccer team captain, is a key advocate for West Virginia’s law and will attend the hearing for her case.
• The outcome could affect similar laws in 27 states and influence policies about sex-based distinctions in sports and privacy protections.

Lainey Armistead will attend the Supreme Court to watch her case defending West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports” law. This law bars biological males who identify as transgender from playing in women’s athletic competitions.

Armistead was a collegiate soccer player and team captain from 2019 to 2022, choosing to defend women’s athletic opportunities after seeing examples of male athletes winning against women nationwide.

“I just am baffled that a girl from Kentucky who went to school and at a smaller school in West Virginia would have the opportunity to be heard,” Armistead said.

“By them taking up this case, they’ve told me and all the other girls that we matter and that we’re important.”

The Supreme Court will consider two cases: West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hecox from Idaho. These cases question whether Title IX and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause permit states to make sports teams based on biological sex.

Idaho was the first state to pass a law protecting women’s sports in 2019 after male athletes dominated track and field. Idaho’s law has been blocked in appeals courts following lawsuits from athletes identifying as transgender, while West Virginia’s law had mixed results in lower courts.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador defended the law, stating lower courts ignored biological sex differences between men and women.

“Males on average possess physical advantages and competitive athletics that begin before puberty and only intensify after puberty. And those advantages are not eliminated by testosterone suppression after male development. The Ninth Circuit departed from settled law by redefining sex to include gender identity,” he said.

Jonathan Scruggs, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, told reporters that the core issue is whether the definition of a woman should rely on biology or identity.

“Does your identity and the fact that you take certain medical treatments make you a woman, or is it rooted in biology? And that is something that the Supreme Court is just gonna have to face,” Scruggs said.

The ACLU argues that gender identity should be considered in discrimination cases, while West Virginia and Idaho hold that biology matters in sports. The court’s decision could impact privacy protections in spaces like bathrooms as well.

Armistead says the debate is personal to her, not abstract, as she benefited from Title IX and wants to protect fairness and women’s opportunities.

“I never imagined that this would be something that would be going to the Supreme Court,” Armistead said.

“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to stand up for women’s safety and fairness. I had the opportunity that I had from Title IX. It’s never been abstract for me.”

The Trump administration plans to support West Virginia and Idaho in court, maintaining a firm stance against allowing gender ideology to override biological distinctions in women’s sports.

Hundreds of girls and women nationally have reportedly lost out on medals and opportunities due to male athletes competing in female sports categories. An international report stated that transgender-identifying athletes had taken at least 890 medals from women.

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