Shumita Basu

Maureen Groppi is the Supreme Court correspondent for USA Today.

She explained what is being considered at the court today.

State officials have argued that the Equal Protection Clause doesn't apply because transgender girls and women are different to people assigned female at birth.

And supporters of bans like West Virginia's Republican attorney general contend that allowing transgender girls to participate basically forces cisgender girls and women to participate against athletes that would have physical advantages against them.

The Trump administration has issued an executive order to revoke funding for schools that allow transgender girls and women to compete on women's and girls' teams and filed a friend of the court brief in which it told the Supreme Court that these laws were reasonable.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination against transgender people did violate civil rights law.

And Pepper Jackson's lawyers have argued that the same logic should extend to Title IX.

In that 2020 ruling, it was Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch who wrote the opinion, surprising some conservatives.

He may very well be in the spotlight again as he considers these cases today.

Let's turn now to housing and the specific challenge of finding what's often called a starter home in the U.S.,

You probably know what I'm talking about.

It's a first ever home purchase on the smaller side used as a keystone to building equity where eventually the homeowner could trade for something bigger or better.

But increasingly, this stepping stone is just not happening for many people as first time buyers have been priced out of the market.

Julie Weil covers affordability for The Washington Post.

She told us that this critical first step up is disappearing for a number of reasons.

First is costs have skyrocketed in recent years.

The U.S.

median home price is up almost $100,000 since 2019.

And then there's an inventory issue as well.

Developers have prioritized building homes with larger floor plans over the last 50 years.