Tuesday, January 13, 2026

and in today's edition of people's rights being up for debate

 The U.S. Supreme Court today hears arguments today on barring trans athletes from sports:

Tuesdays test cases are factually very different. One involves an Idaho college student barred by state law from trying out for the Boise State University varsity women's track team. The other case was brought by a West Virginia middle school student barred by state law from competing in school sports.

There are laws on the books in 27 of the 50 American states now, barring trans youth from participating in sports. Depending on how the court takes up the arguments, consequences could vary: 

 Block's fear is that the Supreme Court will ultimately rule that transgender rights generally are subject to the lowest level of legal scrutiny—something called rational basis, which essentially means that a state law is presumed valid as long as the state legislature has some rational reason—pretty much any reason— for its law. And he argues that using that test, trans kids could arbitrarily be kicked out of school...

The Supreme Court has lots of choices about the path it will take in these cases, and whether it will go big or small, observes William and Mary law professor Jonathan Adler. "There's a real question whether the court will confine what it says to the specific context of sports where there's always some inherent line-drawing that may seem arbitrary, or whether it's going to do something more broad," he says. "And the broader the court goes, certainly the more significant these cases are."

As the Washington Post notes in their quoting of Becky Pepper-Jackson, who brought the West Virginia case, the impact on students now is real: 

“It’s really hard to get used to being constantly judged and silently looked at like you’re a monster,” Pepper-Jackson said. “I try not to let it bother me, but it’s a shock every time.”

No comments: