NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
The Supreme Court has set a new national precedent allowing states to protect women’s sports.
Judges ruled in favor of West Virginia and Idaho on Thursday against trans athletes who sued to gain access to women’s sports. The states were supported by the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), while trans athletes were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Cooley Legal.
In long-awaited rulings in West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hecox, the high court upheld state laws requiring student-athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their biological sex at birth and not their gender identity.
West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey praised the court’s decision in a statement to Pak Gazette Digital.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Female athletes speak in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, after the justices heard arguments on January 13, 2026, on state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports. (Oliver Contreras/AFP)
“This is a monumental victory for every athlete who has ever competed, or dreamed of competing, on a fair and safe playing field. Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms what common sense and the law have long made clear: states have the right to designate sports teams based on biological sex, not gender identity. Without that delineation, Title IX is left upside down and decades of hard-fought progress to advance female athletes are erased,” he said. McCuskey.
“I am immensely proud of my team for not only bringing this issue to the Court, but also for presenting strong and successful arguments. This historic victory will give all states, not just West Virginia, the clarity and confidence to ensure equity and safety for female athletes today and for generations to come.”
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador echoed McCuskey’s statement.
“Today’s decision is a victory for common sense, justice and the countless girls and women who pursue athletics. Idaho led the nation by becoming the first state to protect women’s sports, and I have never hesitated to defend that law,” Labrado said.
“The Supreme Court has now confirmed that states can preserve fair competition and protect the opportunities that generations of women fought to achieve. All parents can be assured that our law protects their daughters who compete in Idaho.”
West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” and Idaho’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” were at the center of the fierce legal battle.
Those state laws had been blocked in recent years after trans athletes in West Virginia and Idaho filed successful lawsuits challenging them. After years of failing to make it past the appeals court, the Supreme Court agreed to hear both cases last July. Now, after oral arguments in January, the laws will be protected.
The decisions mark a massive victory for “Save Women’s Sports” advocates and conservative lawmakers who passed state legislation on the issue. The ruling validates and protects the 27 other state laws that have been passed in recent years to ban biological males from women’s sports.
The transgender plaintiffs were Lindsay Hecox, a transgender athlete seeking to run women’s track and cross country at Boise State University, and Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender youth athlete in West Virginia, who sued the state while she was in high school in 2021, before recently winning a state women’s track and field championship in the shot put in May.
During the oral arguments, the lawyers for both trans athletes experienced questionable moments.
Pepper-Jackson’s attorney, Joshua Block of the American Civil Liberties Union, suggested that “sex” should not be legally defined. Block then fled questioning when asked to explain why after the hearing.
“I really urge the court not to make it about the definition of the sex argument,” Block originally said during the hearing.
CONSERVATIVE JUSTICE HITS THE DOJ IN TRANS SPORTS CASE: ‘I DON’T THINK YOU HAVE A PHD IN THESE THINGS’
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador and West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey stand outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on January 13, 2026, as the court hears cases on whether states can ban transgender girls from competing on women’s sports teams based on biological sex. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg)
But after questioning by Chief Justice John Roberts, who insisted that sex “must mean something,” Block conceded that sex should be defined by biology for the sake of this case, but only in this case.
“I think in this case it can be accepted, for the sake of this case, that we are talking about what they have called biological sex,” he said.
Pak Gazette Digital asked Block what his definition of “sex” is, and he refused to give a definition and then fled further questioning.
Meanwhile, Hecox’s attorney, Kathleen Hartnett of Cooley Legal, admitted that the Hecox athlete was “unlikely” to graduate in May after the firm previously argued that the athlete’s graduation in May would make a decision on Hecox’s athletic eligibility unnecessary.
“He’s unlikely to graduate in May, as my friend said, but he hopes to be able to graduate, through summer credits, in the fall,” Hartnett said just months after the firm submitted a questionable suggestion, in which Hecox stated, “I am currently enrolled in classes that may allow me to graduate in May 2026.”
Earlier in the hearing, Idaho Attorney General Alan Hurst called Hecox’s May graduation date “not possible” after state leadership did some clandestine investigations to uncover Hecox’s status.
AGS LEADING ‘SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS’ LEGAL TEAM AT SCOTUS BATTLE REVEALS EXPECTATIONS FOR COURT DECISION
“[Boise State] “It’s an Idaho client, we asked, and the university confirmed that it’s unlikely to happen in the spring,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) legal counsel John Bursch, who has worked with the attorneys general of Idaho and West Virginia on the Supreme Court case, told Pak Gazette Digital. “It just shows that throughout the case, Hecox has gone back and forth.”
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador said exposing the discrepancy was “important” to his arguments Tuesday.
“I think it’s important. I don’t think it’s the main issue of the case, but I think it’s important,” Labrador told Pak Gazette Digital.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
Now, more than half of US states are empowered to enforce protections for women’s sports without fear of legal challenge.
However, there are still 23 states, including California, New York and Massachusetts, that do not have such laws, and some of them have laws to protect trans athletes in women’s sports.
