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The Supreme Court announced Thursday it will take up a pair of pivotal cases challenging state laws in West Virginia and Idaho that reserve girls’ and women’s sports for biological females.
NBC News reported that the laws were contested by two students — “Becky” Pepper-Jackson, 15, from West Virginia, and “Lindsay” Hecox, 24, from Idaho — who are trans-identifying males. Both received lower court rulings that allowed them to continue participating on girls’ or women’s sports teams while the legal challenges proceed.
In both states, lawmakers passed statutes aimed at ensuring female-only spaces in competitive sports. West Virginia’s law, enacted in 2021, states that sex is determined by “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” Idaho’s 2020 law declares that female teams “should not be open to students of the male sex.”
West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said his state’s law is about fairness: “The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this commonsense law preserving women’s sports for women.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador similarly stated, “Women and girls deserve an equal playing field.”
“Men and women are biologically different,” Labrador later added, “and we hope the Court will allow states to end this injustice and ensure that men no longer create a dangerous, unfair environment for women to showcase their incredible talent and pursue the equal opportunities they deserve.”
In West Virginia, a district court initially ruled in Pepper-Jackson’s favor but later allowed the state law to take effect. Pepper-Jackson appealed, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law from being enforced while the case proceeded. The Supreme Court declined to lift that block, allowing her to continue participating in sports. In Idaho, Hecox obtained a similar injunction in federal court, which the Ninth Circuit later upheld on appeal.
The Supreme Court’s decision to take the cases comes shortly after it upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting medical interventions for youth seeking gender “transitions.” A ruling on whether states may limit participation in female sports based on biological sex is expected by June 2026.
