US Top Court Allows States To Ban Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports, Trump Hails 'Big Win'
US Top Court Allows States To Ban Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports, Trump Hails 'Big Win' Published By, Last Updated: June 30, 2026, 20:26 IST
US Top Court Allows States To Ban Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports, Trump Hails 'Big Win' Published By, Last Updated: June 30, 2026, 20:26 IST The ruling is the latest sign of the conservative-dominated court's willingness to side with states on the issue. Rapid Read The West Virginia case involved a teenage transgender girl who was barred under a 2021 state law from running on her middle school girls' track team. (AFP photo) In a big win for conservatives, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has coached his daughters’ basketball team for years, said boys and girls should be separate but everyone must treated with respect. “Most of the biological female and transgender student-athletes who are involved in transgender sports disputes around the country are teenagers or in their early twenties," Kavanaugh wrote.
“Those student-athletes want to play sports. Their desire to compete warrants respect. No student-athlete on either side of the issue, whether a biological female or transgender, deserves to be ostracized or vilified." But the justice also stressed the “highly competitive" nature of sports, arguing that biological “women and girls should be allowed to compete for those life-changing opportunities on an equal playing field, without fear of physical injury from biological males or being forced to compete against biological males." What Did Trump Say? US President Donald Trump hailed the SC’s ruling as “big win" and said it takes “that ridiculous situation" off the table." “BIG WIN: The United States Supreme Court just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!!" Trump wrote. What Does This SC Ruling Means? The SC ruling will allow Idaho, West Virginia and more than two dozen other Republican-led states to enforce measures requiring students to compete in public school and college teams according to their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.
The cases before the court were brought by transgender students who argued that the bans violated the US Constitution’s equal protection guarantee and Title IX, the federal civil rights law barring sex discrimination in education. The Idaho case arose from the state’s 2020 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which was challenged by a transgender athlete at an Idaho university. Lower courts found the law unconstitutional. Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst told the justices during arguments in January that “sex is what matters in sports," citing differences in size, strength, muscle mass and lung capacity. The West Virginia case involved a teenage transgender girl who was barred under a 2021 state law from running on her middle school girls’ track team. Her lawyers argued that transgender girls who receive testosterone-suppressing treatment do not retain an unfair athletic advantage and that the laws are broad bans driven more by politics than evidence.
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