West Virginia Appeals to SCOTUS Over Transgender Sports Ban

The state of West Virginia is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a lower court’s ruling against its transgender sports ban.

State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, along with the state of Idaho and the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a briefing before the high court asking it to take up the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals April ruling about the Save Women’s Sports Act.

The appeals court blocked the law, finding it violates transgender students’ rights under Title IX, a federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education programs.

Morrisey, a Republican candidate for governor, announced the filing during a press conference alongside Lainey Armistead, an alumna of the West Virginia State University women’s soccer program.

“The appeals court… got this case badly wrong,” Morrisey said. “The Save Women’s Sports Act does not discriminate against boys who identify as transgender. The law simply recognizes basic scientific truth and recognizes the separation of sexes in sport, something that’s been done at least my entire life and throughout the entirety of Title IX.

“If participation in school sports is decided by gender identity, then separate boys and girls sports will become meaningless,” Morrisey said.

The case, B.P.J. vs. the West Virginia Board of Education, was filed in May 2021 on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a now 14-year-old track athlete who would be barred from participating if the ban is upheld. Pepper will enter the ninth grade this fall. She is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, Lambda Legal and Cooley Law Firm.

“As the Fourth Circuit made abundantly clear, our client deserves the opportunity to participate in sports teams without discrimination,” the organizations said in a joint statement Thursday. “We will make our position clear to the Court and continue to defend the right of all students to play as who they are.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals in February 2023 blocked the state from removing Pepper-Jackson from her school’s track and field team while legal advocates appealed a decision from the Southern District of West Virginia upholding the ban.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed the bill into law in April 2021. It prohibits transgender women and girls in the state from participating in sports that align with their gender identity, but does not likewise prohibit transgender boys and men from participating in boys and mens’ sports.

This article was first published by West Virginia Watch. Read the original article.