Supreme Court hears arguments in landmark transgender athletes’ cases.
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What are the landmark transgender athlete cases being heard by the Supreme Court?
The Supreme Court heard arguments for two landmark transgender athlete cases on Tuesday, one based in West Virginia and one in Idaho, both of which were brought by transgender women contesting the legality of their state's ban on transgender female athletes. The cases could have broad ramifications for the rights of transgenders in the U.S., Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. Joining me now to discuss the arguments and also how the court responded is USA Today Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Grappe. Thank you so much for coming on, Maureen. Thanks for having me on. These two cases took a long time to reach the Supreme Court. In fact, Idaho and West Virginia both fielded petitions to have the court review lower court's rulings in July of 2024.
But the Supreme Court didn't grant those petitions until after its June 2025 decision in U.S. v. Grimetti. Why and what was that case about?
Well,
So the previous case was about state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
How do the cases in Idaho and West Virginia challenge existing laws?
In other words, whether states could prevent minors from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapy. And in that decision, the court said that the bans are constitutional because they turn on someone's age and type of medical treatment. Then they were not discriminating on the basis of their sex on whether someone is transgender. The case, though, was decided what we call narrowly. So it was just on that particular issue of gender affirming care. They could have written the case more broadly in ways that would have decided other types of situations, such as these transgender athlete bans, but they didn't. They just kept a narrow focus on that. And then now they turned to this specific case, whether another area of law is affecting people who are transgender.
Maureen, can you please describe the two cases at the heart of yesterday's hearing?
So there were two issues that the court was asked to decide about whether these state bans are legal. One is whether they violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, and that's the same issue that was at the heart of the gender-affirming care case from Tennessee last year. The other issue is whether they also violate Title IX, and that's the section of a civil rights law that bars sex discrimination in educational programs. Lawyers for the students argue that the bans discriminated against them on the basis of both sex and transgender status and that that can't be justified in their cases because the laws don't take into account whether someone was blocked. Typical male puberty, for example, still has a physical advantage.
The lawyers for Idaho and West Virginia who were defending their laws, they argued that transgender women retain advantages even after they've had hormonal treatments such as puberty blockers and receiving estrogen so that they can be treated differently under the law.
What arguments are being made regarding the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX?
One of the plaintiffs here, Hecox in Idaho, has asked the judges to drop her case. Why was that and how did the court respond?
So Lindsay Haycock, she's a college student in Idaho. She never played competitive sports at school because she failed to make the cut for her college's cross-country and track teams. Instead, she played what her lawyers called no-cut team sports in soccer and track. But she stopped participating in sports this year, which is her senior year, and she wanted to dismiss her challenge to give the other side a win, saying, I'm not challenging your law anymore as it applies to me. I'm not going to play sports anymore. I'm never going to play sports and try to challenge this law again. And she did so because she told the Supreme Court that she's afraid continuing with her case will subject her to harassment and that'll make it harder for graduating.
And that's what she wants to focus on right now. And she also said that there's increased intolerance for transgender women who participate in sports. She made that argument to the court in the fall. Idaho opposed her petition, even though that would have given them a win.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the landmark transgender athlete cases being heard by the Supreme Court?
0:05–1:20
2
How do the cases in Idaho and West Virginia challenge existing laws?
1:20–3:04
3
What arguments are being made regarding the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX?
3:04–4:19
4
Why did one plaintiff ask to withdraw her case against the law?
4:19–5:56
5
Did the justices show any bias toward either side during the arguments?
5:56–8:06
6
What impact does Trump's executive order have on these cases?
8:06–9:43
7
How many states are affected by the potential ruling on transgender athletes?
9:43–10:47
Speakers
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