CV NEWS FEED // West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey recently filed an amicus brief in support of several middle school female athletes who were punished for forfeiting their track and field event after a male student who identified as “transgender” was going to compete against them.
Morrisey wrote on April 26 in defense of the female student-athletes’ actions, saying that they were protected by the First Amendment.
“Their actions at the earlier track meet were not disruptive or aggrandizing,” wrote Morrisey in the brief. “They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision.”
In April 2021, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill prohibiting male athletes who identify as transgender from participating in women’s sports. In May 2021, a lawsuit, B.P.J. vs. the West Virginia Board of Education, was filed challenging the bill.
On April 16, 2024, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the legislation, allowing male athletes who identify as transgender to play in women’s sports.
On April 18, five middle school female athletes from Harrison County, West Virginia, forfeited a shot put event at their track and field meet in protest of playing against a male athlete.
The Harrison County Board of Education punished the female athletes for their protest by banning them from competing in their next track and field meet.
Four of the five students filed a suit against the Board on April 26.
In the amicus brief, Morrisey also argued that the athletes already received a “punishment” for their actions because they did not win any points in the event by deciding to forfeit.
“The athletes accepted that result and then provided a clear statement on ‘why’ they engaged in the protest action,” he concluded:
Rather than being punished for their conduct or being sidelined in an effort to score points, all should commend these young athletes for putting their personal performances aside to demonstrate their discontent with an unjust result that affects them personally and within that event.
There can be no more direct and connected protest within the sports context. And that expression, along with their attendance at a press conference with political figures addressing their protests, are protected activities.
