Thu, July 02, 2026
US Supreme Court enables individual states to bar transgender athletes
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has enabled individual states to impose restrictions on transgender student athletes, aligning with US president Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order, ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ which saw the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) complying with the order which aims to ban trans athletes across all the levels of sport. This also aligns with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ‘Protection of the Female Category’ which requires athletes to pass a sex-determining exam to be eligible for the upcoming Olympics.
Associate Justice of the SCOTUS, Brett Kavanaugh, ruled: “Consistent with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, we hold that the states may maintain women's and girls' sports for biological females. They may determine eligibility for women's and girls' sports based on biological sex. The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women's and girls' sports throughout America…
Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable: Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women's and girls' teams can reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition.”
Kirsty Coventry, IOC president, expressed the same when she introduced the IOC’s ‘Protection of the Female Category’ mandate: “The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.”
As of July 2026, 27 states have laws banning transgender girls and women from competition in girls’ and women’s school sports, while 23 do not. However, these states have faced pressure from Trump’s administration to introduce such bans or face cuts to federal education funding.
This ruling will have a direct impact on athletes like Becky Pepper-Jackson who is a transgender student from West Virginia. Jackson challenged a 2021 state law which banned transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams. Jackson argued that because she had undergone treatment that blocked her experiencing male puberty, her rights were violated, and she was able to continue competing. However, this new development holds that states may restrict girls' and women's sports to biological females without violating the Constitution or Title IX.
There are concerns among some that this new development, along with the Idaho’s ‘Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,’ will mean that all women will become subjected to invasive medical examinations to determine their sex.
