Women’s sports on the line as Supreme Court wrestles with defining ‘sex’
The Supreme Court this week heard arguments in a landmark pair of cases regarding the future of women’s sports, but the real drama lies in whether the Court will choose...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Supreme Court this week heard arguments in a landmark pair of cases regarding the future of women’s sports, but the real drama lies in whether the Court will choose to answer an increasingly controversial question: What is a woman? The arguments in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. lasted an unusually long time – more than three hours, with tough questioning from the justices to both sides that mostly focused on highly technical legal standards. The national context, however, is simple: there has been a surge of biological boys identifying as transgender girls participating in girls’ sports across the country. The result? Girls and women are losing athletic competitions, losing scholarship opportunities, and sometimes even suffering physical injury from their physically stronger male counterparts. A recent United Nations report summed it up: as of August 2024, "over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions [worldwide] have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports" to "males who identify as women." As a result, more than half of the states in the country have passed laws protecting women’s sports by keeping participation separated by sex. RILEY GAINES SLAMS DEMS AS SCOTUS SET TO HEAR ARGUMENTS ON WOMEN'S SPORTS CASES On Tuesday, there were two questions before the Court. In the Idaho case, it was: "Do laws that seek to protect women's and girls' sports by limiting participation to women and girls based on sex violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?" In the West Virginia case, there was a similar first question and the addition of another: "Does Title IX prevent a state from consistently designating girls’ and boys’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth?" In 2020, Idaho became the first state in the nation to pass a law protecting women’s sports, "Fairness in Women’s Sports." The law preserves women’s sports in public schools – elementary through college – by linking participation on an athlet…