Nina Totenberg

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey defends the state law, contending that sports are unique.

But not everyone agrees this case is about that limited objective.

Here's John Bursch.

Senior Counsel for the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

They've probably gotten here because, among other things, the rhetoric around trans issues proved very helpful for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign.

So now 27 states have laws barring transgender participation in sports, and supporters say these laws are needed to ensure fairness in athletic competition,

and to prevent trans athletes, whose sex assigned at birth was male, from having an unfair advantage in women's sports.

Opponents, on the other hand, say these laws discriminate based on sex in violation of both federal statutes and the Constitution's guarantee to equal protection of the law.

One involves a college student barred by Idaho state law from trying out for the Boise State University varsity women's track team.

The other was brought by a West Virginia middle schooler, and I want to focus on her for purposes of our discussion this morning.

Now in high school, Becky Pepper Jackson was assigned male at birth, but by third grade she was presenting as a girl and she joined the girls' running team.

Later on, she would experience puberty as a girl by taking hormones.

Trouble was, she was a really slow runner, Steve.

And in sixth grade, her coach pulled her aside to tell her that she simply wasn't good enough to be on the team.

Correct.

The state says biological difference matters on the field.

As State Attorney General John McCuskey notes, it didn't matter much when Becky was in fifth grade, but by the time she was a freshman in high school at age 13 and 14... She is the third best shot putter in the entire state, and that includes 15-, 16-, and 17-year-old girls.

Becky's lawyer, Josh Block of the ACLU, counters that there are always winners and losers in sports.