US Supreme Court upholds transgender sports ban

The court decided 9-0 that the state laws do not violate the Title IX civil rights statute.The US Supreme Court has upheld state laws that bar Transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.The ruling upholds laws in Idaho and West Virginia that bar Transgender women and girls from playing on female sports teams. The Idaho and West Virginia laws designate sports teams at public schools, including universities, according to “Biological sex” and bar “students of the male sex” from female teams.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US Supreme Court rebuffs Trump’s appeal in E Jean Carroll caselist 2 of 3US Supreme Court backs Trump’s firings; Fed’s Cook reserved as exceptionlist 3 of 3US Supreme Court rules against Trump order to end birthright citizenshipend of listThe justices overturned decisions by lower courts siding with transgender students who challenged the bans in the two states as violating the US Constitution and a federal anti-discrimination law.The court decided 9-0 that the state laws do not violate the Title IX civil rights statute that bars discrimination in education “on the basis of sex”.However, the justices were divided 6-3 in deciding that the measures also do not violate the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.“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,” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority.More than two dozen other Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes. The high court’s decision will likely extend to them as well.