Federal appeals court overturns West Virginia transgender sports ban
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal appeals court has overturned a transgender sports ban in West Virginia, ruling that the law violates Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in schools.
The 2-1 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocks a West Virginia law that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams.
The court ruled that the law cannot lawfully be applied to a 13-year-old girl who has been taking puberty-blocking drugs and has been publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade.
In February 2023, the court had blocked the state’s bid to kick Becky Pepper Jackson off her high school track team if the law were upheld.
The court ruled Tuesday in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, its West Virginia chapter and the LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal, which filed a lawsuit in 2021 against state and county boards of education and their regulators as defendants. Republican Gov. Jim Justice had signed a bill into law earlier that year.
“This is a tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians, and the freedom of all young people to play as they are,” ACLU West Virginia attorney Joshua Block said in a statement.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision.
“I will continue to fight to secure Title IX. We must continue to work to protect women’s sports so that women’s safety is guaranteed and girls have a truly level playing field,” the Attorney General added. “We know the law is correct and will use every tool available to defend it.”
Sports participation is one of the most important fronts in the legislative and legal battles in recent years over the role of transgender people in American public life. Most Republican-controlled states have implemented restrictions on participation, as well as bans on gender-affirming health care for minors. Several organizations have also placed restrictions on the restrooms and locker rooms that transgender people can use, especially in schools.
West Virginia is one of at least 24 states with a law banning transgender women and girls from participating in certain women’s or girls’ sports competitions.
The bans are in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
In addition to West Virginia, judges temporarily suspended enforcement of the bans in Arizona, Idaho and Utah.
A ban in Ohio will take effect later this month.
The Biden administration originally planned to issue a new federal Title IX rule — the law prohibits sex discrimination in education — that would address both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes. Earlier this year, the department decided to split them into separate rules, and the athletics rule now remains in limbo.
Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision that blocked a ban on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports in Idaho.
The 2nd Circuit ruled differently last year in a challenge to Connecticut’s policy to allow transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports, reviving the case and sending it back to a lower court without ruling on its merits.