Overview
- The Supreme Court, in a 6–3 decision issued June 30, 2026, upheld Idaho and West Virginia laws that bar transgender girls and women from competing on girls’ and women’s school teams.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion that said Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause permit schools and states to set eligibility by biological sex, while Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissented in part and urged more factual development.
- The consolidated cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., centered on two transgender athletes, Lindsay Hecox and Becky Pepper-Jackson, who had sued to compete on female teams.
- The ruling strengthens the legal footing of similar bans in roughly two dozen states but does not force every state to adopt one and leaves room for different policies and further litigation at lower courts.
- The decision drew immediate support from the Trump administration and conservative officials and sharp criticism from civil-rights and LGBTQ+ groups, who say they will press new legal challenges and track effects on students’ school participation and safety.