West Virginia is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a lower court ruling against its transgender sports ban.
State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, along with the State of Idaho and the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a statement in the High Court, Take the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ April decision on the Women’s Sports Protection Act.
of The appeals court blocked the lawThe court found that the school violated the rights of transgender students under Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Morrisey He announced the allegations at a press conference alongside Rainey Armistead.West Virginia State University women’s soccer alumna.
“The appeals court … has grossly misread this case,” Morrissey said. “The Women’s Sports Protection Act does not discriminate against boys who identify as transgender. This law simply recognizes a basic scientific truth and allows for the separation of the sexes in sports, which is what has happened at least throughout my lifetime and throughout Title IX.”
“If participation in school sports is determined by gender identity, then separating boys’ and girls’ sports makes no sense,” Morrissey said.
Case, BPJ v. West Virginia Board of EducationThe lawsuit was filed in May 2021 on behalf of Becky Pepper Jackson, a 14-year-old track and field athlete who would be barred from competing if the ban is upheld. Pepper will be in ninth grade this fall. She is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, Lambda Law Firm and Cooley Law Firm.
“As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has made abundantly clear, our clients deserve the opportunity to participate on sports teams without discrimination,” the groups said in a joint statement Thursday. “We have made our position clear to the court and will continue to defend the right of all students to play as their own individual selves.”
In February 2023, a U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the state from removing Pepper Jackson from the school’s track and field team, but legal advocacy groups appealed the ruling upholding the Southern District of West Virginia’s ban.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice signed the bill into law in April 2021. The bill bans transgender women and girls in the state from participating in sports that match their gender identity, but does not similarly bar transgender boys and men from participating in boys’ and men’s sports.
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