Supreme Court upholds state laws banning transgender athletes from women's sports

The United States Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on Tuesday as it upheld the state laws of Idaho and West Virginia, banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports. In a 6-3 ruling, the court upheld the law, stating that federal law allowed schools to divide students based on their biological sex for sporting programs, as per a report in Politico. The decision is a big win for President Donald Trump, who has long been against transgender athletes competing in women's sports.

The court's majority opinion was penned by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has coached his daughters’ basketball team for years, as per CNN. In his opinion, he wrote that most biological female and transgender student-athletes involved in such disputes across the country were in their teen years or early twenties. "Those student-athletes want to play sports. Their desire to compete warrants respect. No student-athlete on either side of the issue, whether a biological female or transgender, deserves to be ostracized or vilified," he added.

While the law banning transgender athletes from women's sports was challenged in Idaho and West Virginia, the Supreme Court's ruling paves the way for such laws to be strengthened elsewhere. At the moment, around two dozen states have similar laws, and the NCAA, which is in charge of overseeing college sports, has also implemented the ban on transgender athletes in women's sports for quite a while now.

President Trump praised the court's decision, calling it a "big win" in a post on Truth Social. "That takes that ridiculous situation off the table," he asserted. Groups supporting the ban showed up outside the court and celebrated as the verdict was made public. One group of women was seen praying and cheering, armed with signs that said: "save women's sports." Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds also praised the decision in a post on X.

Democrats, however, were not thrilled with the decision. Senator Ed Markey said that the decision could lead to discrimination against transgender athletes in the future. "This decision tears trans athletes from their teams and the sports they love. We will keep fighting. Discrimination and hate will not win," he added.