On 30 June 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled that state laws restricting school sports participation based on biological sex do not violate the US Constitution.
The Court held that such laws, which effectively bar transgender women and girls from competing in female-designated sports, are consistent with both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The ruling came in two consolidated cases, West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, which challenged laws in West Virginia and Idaho respectively.
West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” enacted in 2021, banned students who were biologically male at birth from participating in competitive or contact sports designated for female students in public secondary schools and colleges.
Idaho’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” signed into law by Governor Brad Little in March 2020, categorically banned transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports at all public school levels, from elementary through college.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing the majority opinion, concluded that Title IX allows schools to provide separate women’s and men’s teams as defined by biological sex, citing inherent physical differences between the sexes as justification.
The majority specifically noted that twenty-seven states, the NCAA, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the International Olympic Committee have all drawn the same biological line in their respective rules and policies.
The Court also rejected arguments that its prior ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County was relevant, concluding that “Title VII and Bostock are not relevant in this very different statutory and factual context.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the Bostock opinion, wrote in a concurring opinion that it “is a mistake to assume that, just because firing someone in part because of his biological sex amounts to unlawful discrimination in violation of Title VII, sponsoring a single-sex sports team limited to biological women or girls must also amount to unlawful discrimination in violation of Title IX.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, concurred in part and dissented in part, arguing the Court should have taken a narrower approach on the Title IX question.
The dissent maintained that equal protection cases require courts to scrutinise whether a sex classification is overbroad as applied to a discrete, readily identifiable subclass of individuals.
Twenty-seven states have enacted laws restricting transgender participation in school sports, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Texas, and West Virginia, among others.
Two additional states, Alaska and Virginia, have bans in place through state regulations or agency policies rather than formal legislation.
The decision carries significant implications for schools, colleges, and universities across the country, particularly those receiving federal financial assistance, which may now need to reassess their existing institutional policies.