In a 6–3 decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that states have a right to prohibit male athletes who identify as transgender from competing against female athletes.
In the majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that West Virginia and Idaho did not violate Title IX or the equal protection clause by determining athletic eligibility based on sex, rather than “gender identity.” Justices Thomas and Gorsuch both filed concurring opinions.
“The term ‘sex’ in Title IX, the Javits Amendment, and the Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The ordinary meaning of the term ‘sex’ at the time of enactment in the early 1970s was biological sex and not gender identity, particularly in the sports context.”
The opinion addresses two cases, West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, both of which were filed by male, trans-identifying student athletes claiming a right to participate in female sports.
The Court’s three liberal justices dissented from the majority’s finding on the equal protection clause but agreed that West Virginia and Idaho had not violated Title IX.
This ruling upholds 27 other similar state restrictions. These restrictions prohibit anyone except females from competing in women’s and girls’ sports in states like Florida and Texas.
Oral arguments for the case were first heard in January, coming after 26 states have issued bans on so-called “gender-affirming” care over the past few years.
West Virginia v. B.P.J. involved the trans-identifying male plaintiff Bechy Pepper-Jackson, B.P.J. in the court documents. Pepper-Jackson, now a rising junior at Bridgeport High School, is a track and field athlete prevented by the school from participating in its female sports programs. At eleven years old, Pepper-Jackson sued the State of West Virginia and the West Virginia Board of Education. His case moved to the Supreme Court in June 2025.
In Little v. Hecox, the plaintiff was trans-identifying male college athlete Lindsay Hecox. Hecox had been prevented from competing on the female track and cross-country teams at Boise State University under the 2020 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. He sued Idaho Governor Brad Little in April 2020, and his case was taken up by the Supreme Court in July 2025.
Addressing cases of trans-identifying male athlete like these has been a focal point of President Trump’s second term in office. On February 5, 2025, he issued an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
“[I]t is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the president wrote.