Supreme Court Upholds State Laws Restricting Transgender Athletes in Girls' Sports

A major Supreme Court ruling on transgender athletes in school sports has put Senate President Warren Petersen (R-AZ) at the center of the national conversation, partly because he was directly involved in the legal fight.

In a 6-3 decision today, the Supreme Court ruled that states can require girls' and women's sports teams to be limited to biological sex.

The cases, known as West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, upheld laws from West Virginia and Idaho restricting transgender athletes from competing on girls' teams.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion, stating that both Title IX, the federal law guaranteeing equal opportunity in sports, and the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause allow states to base eligibility for sports on biological sex.

"The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women's and girls' sports throughout America," he wrote.

The three liberal justices disagreed on the constitutional question, though they agreed with the majority's reasoning under Title IX. Justice Sonia Sotomayor read her dissent aloud from the bench, writing that the ruling ignored individual circumstances. "The ban is absolute, so B.P.J. cannot practice on girls' teams, even if she would not take anyone's spot," she wrote.

Petersen's Fight

Petersen had personally defended a similar Arizona law in court after, he said, and Attorney General Kris Mayes (D-AZ) declined to do so.

He celebrated the ruling on X. "It was my privilege to step up and defend the law when liberal Mayes refused to do so," he wrote, adding that he was "honored to have the endorsement" of attorneys general from Idaho and West Virginia, who led related cases in their own states.

The ruling affects similar laws in 27 states, one being Arizona. It follows an executive order from President Donald Trump barring federally funded education programs from allowing transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity, as well as updated eligibility rules from the NCAA and International Olympic Committee limiting women's events to athletes assigned female at birth.