The Supreme Court is wading into one of the most divisive cultural issues: transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The court agreed Thursday to examine a pair of cases where trans athletes have challenged statewide bans on their participation on women’s teams in schools and colleges.
The decision to address the hot-button issue comes just two weeks after the conservative-dominated court dealt a huge blow to trans rights. The court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, splitting along ideological lines.
The ruling earned a blistering dissent from Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal justice, who accused the majority of “abandoning” trans kids.
Since his return to office, President Donald Trump has fought hard to eliminate trans athletes from women sports—with success.
In February, the NCAA caved under pressure from the Trump administration, changing its policy to prevent trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.
And on Tuesday, Trump won a decisive victory in his battle with the University of Pennsylvania. The school issued its own trans athlete ban and wiped out records set by trans swimmer Lia Thomas in exchange for $175 million in unfrozen federal funds.
The two cases the Supreme Court will consider center on trans athletes in West Virginia and Idaho who were each granted injunctions to the states’ bans to keep competing in women’s high school and college sports, respectively.
West Virginia’s attorney general, JB McCuskey, was eager for the Supreme Court to intervene.
“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,” he told NBC News.
Since Trump’s election victory in November, Democrats have reckoned with the party’s stance on trans rights.
Some Dems are pushing for the party to embrace the crackdown—especially bans on trans athletes—while many in the party’s liberal wing have warned against letting go of values and giving in to Trump.
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