The ultra-conservative US Supreme Court on Thursday refused to urgently approve a West Virginia law aimed at barring transgender girls from joining all-women’s teams in their schools.
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Its decision, taken by a majority of seven judges out of nine, is not on the merits and does not, as is customary in this type of case, include interpretations.
Its two more conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, have expressed disagreement with the majority of their colleagues. “This case relates to an important matter which the court may have to decide in the near future,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the lockdown allows a 12-year-old transgender girl, Becky Pepper Jackson, to stay on her college track team.
In 2021, she took legal action after her home state, West Virginia, passed a law barring students who identify as “male” on the basis of “biology at birth” from entering competitions for women at their school.
After many twists and turns, the Federal Court of Appeal decided on February 22 to freeze the law pending examination of the merits of the case. Then West Virginia urgently turned to the Supreme Court.
“In recent years, biological males identified as female have increasingly defeated biological females in women’s competitions,” the state wrote in its appeal, asking the court to “protect equality” in women’s sports.
Becky Pepper Jackson, who is receiving treatment to prevent puberty, “has been on the women’s team at her school for three or four seasons and hasn’t bothered anyone,” the girl’s attorney responded, noting that she “always finishes in the back of the peloton.”
On Thursday, his defenders rejoiced at the decision. “We are grateful to the Supreme Court for recognizing there was no urgency,” the powerful civil rights organization ACLU commented in a press release, deploring the “harsh and unfounded appeal.”
Transgender rights have been at the center of many legal battles for years, but the Supreme Court has so far avoided getting involved, with one exception: In 2020, it ruled against a funeral director who fired a transgender employee after she transitioned.
