{"id":4874,"date":"2026-06-30T17:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/06\/30\/us-supreme-court-rules-states-can-exclude-trans-athletes-from-female-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:22:18","slug":"us-supreme-court-rules-states-can-exclude-trans-athletes-from-female-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=4874","title":{"rendered":"US supreme court rules states can exclude trans athletes from female sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"74e2ba59-9fc3-4f56-b94a-7b1e291f8821\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"people hold signs that say 'save women's sports'\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/05800e795ea8956f0042723f88b14b667d604d92\/0_0_6829_5464\/master\/6829.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"372.05447356860446\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Protesters against transgender athletes in women&#8217;s sports celebrate after the high judges released their end-of-year decisions in Washington DC on 30 June.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"74e2ba59-9fc3-4f56-b94a-7b1e291f8821\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Protesters against transgender athletes in women&#8217;s sports celebrate after the high judges released their end-of-year decisions in Washington DC on 30 June.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">US supreme court rules states can exclude trans athletes from female sports<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gm5ptv\">\n<p>Justices voted to overturn judgments issued by lower courts in favor of trans students who sued after being barred from competing in West Virginia and Idaho<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/live\/2026\/jun\/30\/birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-donald-trump-us-politics-latest-news\" data-link-name=\"in standfirst link\">Supreme court decisions \u2013 live updates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2026\/feb\/17\/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB\" data-link-name=\"in standfirst link\">Sign up for the Breaking News US email<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/us-supreme-court\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">US supreme court<\/a> has upheld laws in two conservative states excluding transgender girls and women from competing in female sports in a far-reaching ruling likely to pave the way for similar bans throughout the US and handing Donald Trump a key \u201cculture war\u201d victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The court voted to overturn previous judgements issued by lower courts in favor of two trans students who had sued after being barred from competing in West Virginia and Idaho respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The ruling centered on the case of Lindsay Hecox, a college student in Idaho, and Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old high school student from West Virginia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The court \u2013 which is split 6-3 in a conservative-liberal majority \u2013 ruled that banning transgender women and girls from competing in sports does not violate Title IX, a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination in education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The three liberal justices dissented from some parts of the judgement, but concurred with other parts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The impact is likely to have a wider resonance because Idaho and West Virginia\u2019s prohibitions against transgender athletes are already replicated in at least 25 other states. It seems likely that Tuesday\u2019s ruling will be interpreted as a green light by these states, although its impact on ongoing lawsuits challenging state laws in California, Connecticut and other states is unclear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court that, \u201cstates may maintain women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sports for biological females\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The outcome was prefigured by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jan\/13\/supreme-court-case-trans-athletes\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">session to hear oral arguments<\/a> in January, when some conservative justices displayed sympathy for the view that transgender competitors were undermining fairness in women\u2019s sports on the grounds that their birth sex gave them a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It represents another ruling by the court favorable to Trump, who has consistently and vehemently railed against the phenomenon of what he has called \u201cmen in women\u2019s sports\u201d, support for which he has tried to pin on the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The issue has been in the vanguard of Trump\u2019s efforts to wage \u201cculture wars\u201d as a weapon in imposing his agenda and has assumed outsize importance in proportion to to the number of individuals involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Charlie Baker, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than 500,000 students on campus teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Nevertheless, Trump used the Democrats\u2019 perceived sympathies as a campaign issue in the 2024 presidential election, airing a television and digital advert that proclaimed \u201cKamala is for they\/them, President Trump is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The NCAA and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women\u2019s sports in response to an executive order signed by Trump aimed at barring their participation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Polls have shown a majority of US adults broadly in favor of rules restricting transgender children and teenagers to participating in sports competitions in the genders they were assigned at birth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Trump\u2019s administration has cracked down on the use of gender-neutral pronouns \u2013 refusing to answer correspondence that uses them, while also barring them from passports. It has also<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/trump-transgender-healthcare-gender-veterans-federal-employees-rcna346425\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"> taking steps<\/a> to limit access to gender transition surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hecox, a college student, had originally sued Idaho in an attempt to overturn its 2020 first-in-the-nation law banning trans woman and girls from female sports team. She later tried to have the case dismissed, saying she was no longer pursuing female sports and feared being harased, but the court insisted on hearing it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Pepper-Jackson challenged West Virginia\u2019s law on the grounds that she had undergone gender-affirming treatment at a young age, did not experience male puberty, and thus enjoyed no unfair advantage. She has identified as a girl since the age of eight and was issued with a West Virginia birth certificate identifying her as female, later becoming the statewide champion in the shot put.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls sports in the entire state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-supreme-court\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US supreme court<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/society\/transgender\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Transgender<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/trump-administration\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Trump administration<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/world\/lgbt-rights\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">LGBTQ+ rights<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=US%20supreme%20court%20rules%20states%20can%20exclude%20trans%20athletes%20from%20female%20sports&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jun\/30\/us-supreme-court-upholds-laws-trans-women-sports?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fjun%2F30%2Fus-supreme-court-upholds-laws-trans-women-sports&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/jun\/30\/us-supreme-court-upholds-laws-trans-women-sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-axwinp\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protesters against transgender athletes in women&#8217;s sports celebrate after the high judges released their end-of-year decisions in Washington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}