US Supreme Court To Hear W.Va. Transgender Sports Case

The Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case brought by the state involving a transgender teen from West Virginia. 

The case concerns West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act, a 2021 law that says male students cannot compete on female sports teams involving competitive skill or contact. 

Male-gender athletes who identify as female may still compete on boys’ or co-ed teams, according to the law. The Supreme Court will decide whether the act violates Title IX or the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey will make the argument representing the state.  

“This case is monumental not only for West Virginia, but for our entire country. The outcome will impact the future of women’s sports, the promises of Title IX, and the safety of our daughters,” McCuskey said. “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will uphold the Save Women’s Sports Act and agree with what West Virginia has been saying for years: biological sex matters in sports, and allowing males to compete against female athletes is unfair and dangerous.”

Before the law took effect, B.P.J. a then-11-year-old who identifies as female, challenged the act. Today, according to the SOTUSBlog, B.P.J. is “a 15-year-old high school student who has publicly identified as female since the third grade. B.P.J. takes medicine to stave off the onset of male puberty and has also begun to receive hormone therapy with estrogen. B.P.J’s mother, Heather Jackson, went to court on her child’s behalf when she learned that the West Virginia law would bar B.P.J. from participating on the girls’ middle school sports teams.”

The West Virginia case is one of two that will be argued simultaneously in front of the high court. 

In July 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia issued a preliminary injunction, allowing the then-Bridgeport Middle School student to continue competing on the girls’ cross-country and track-and-field teams while the case moved forward. In January 2023, after months of discovery and review, the district court reversed itself, dissolved the preliminary injunction, and ruled the Sports Act constitutional by granting summary judgment for West Virginia. 

In February 2023, B.P.J. appealed to the Fourth Circuit, which granted B.P.J.’s request to keep playing on the girls’ team while the appeal was being decided. Then in April 2024, a divided Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision and ruled in favor of B.P.J. 

In response, West Virginia appealed to the Supreme Court, and in July 2025, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.