A federal appeals court has blocked a West Virginia law that banned students from participating in single-sex sports teams that don’t match their biological sex.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order and opinion on April 16 that blocks enforcement of the Save Women’s Sports Bill on grounds that the law violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, a 13-year-old eighth-grade track athlete who was born male but identifies as female.
The measure was signed into law by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in 2021. It was quickly challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought the lawsuit on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, the transgender student who was prevented from joining the girls’ cross-country team.
The ACLU argued that Becky Pepper-Jackson (referred to in court filings by the initials B.P.J.), who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2019 and was treated with puberty blockers followed by “gender-affirming” hormone therapy, never underwent male puberty and so doesn’t have any athletic advantage over naturally-born girls.
The group claimed that the West Virginia law discriminated against children like B.P.J. “on the basis of sex and transgender status” in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, including the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits a state from denying a person within its jurisdiction “equal protection of the laws.”
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