A federal appeals court Thursday upheld a lower courtโs injunction blocking Idahoโs anti-transgender sports law.
It means the law cannot be enforced while a suit against it is heard. Idaho in 2020 became the first state to enact such a law. It barred trans women and girls from competing in female sports in public schools and colleges, and barred many intersex athletes from competing as well.
Lindsay Hecox, a trans woman track athlete at Boise State University, filed the suit shortly after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the legislation, along with Kayden Hulquist, a then-senior at Boise High School who is cisgender and was concerned about being subjected to the lawโs invasive โsex verificationโ testing. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Idaho affiliate, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP.A federal appeals court Thursday upheld a lower courtโs injunction blocking Idahoโs anti-transgender sports law.
It means the law cannot be enforced while a suit against it is heard. Idaho in 2020 became the first state to enact such a law. It barred trans women and girls from competing in female sports in public schools and colleges, and barred many intersex athletes from competing as well.
Lindsay Hecox, a trans woman track athlete at Boise State University, filed the suit shortly after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the legislation, along with Kayden Hulquist, a then-senior at Boise High School who is cisgender and was concerned about being subjected to the lawโs invasive โsex verificationโ testing. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Idaho affiliate, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP.
Idaho Chief U.S. District Court Judge David C. Nye issued an injunction blocking the ban in August 2020. He noted that it appears to be on shaky constitutional ground. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has now affirmed his action.
โThe panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it found, on the record before it, that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Act violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendmentโ to the U.S. Constitution,โ Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the Ninth Circuit order.Twenty-two other states have enacted similar laws, some covering K-12 schools only, others including colleges and universities. Most of them are aimed at preventing trans female athletes from competing with cisgender girls and women, but some place restrictions on trans male athletes as well. Several are being challenged in court, and in West Virginia, the law is blocked from enforcement against the single plaintiff in the suit while it proceeds.
A federal appeals court Thursday upheld a lower courtโs injunction blocking Idahoโs anti-transgender sports law.
It means the law cannot be enforced while a suit against it is heard. Idaho in 2020 became the first state to enact such a law. It barred trans women and girls from competing in female sports in public schools and colleges, and barred many intersex athletes from competing as well.
Lindsay Hecox, a trans woman track athlete at Boise State University, filed the suit shortly after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the legislation, along with Kayden Hulquist, a then-senior at Boise High School who is cisgender and was concerned about being subjected to the lawโs invasive โsex verificationโ testing. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Idaho affiliate, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP.
Idaho Chief U.S. District Court Judge David C. Nye issued an injunction blocking the ban in August 2020. He noted that it appears to be on shaky constitutional ground. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has now affirmed his action.
โThe panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it found, on the record before it, that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Act violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendmentโ to the U.S. Constitution,โ Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the Ninth Circuit order.
Twenty-two other states have enacted similar laws, some covering K-12 schools only, others including colleges and universities. Most of them are aimed at preventing trans female athletes from competing with cisgender girls and women, but some place restrictions on trans male athletes as well. Several are being challenged in court, and in West Virginia, the law is blocked from enforcement against the single plaintiff in the suit while it proceeds.
Hecox and Hulquistโs lawyers praised the Ninth Circuitโs decision. โThis is an important victory for common sense, equality, and the rights of transgender youth under the law,โ Chase Strangio, deputy director for Transgender Justice at the ACLUโs LGBT & HIV Project, said in a press release. โThe court found that transgender athletes like Lindsay face irreparable harm by a ban on their right to participate as who they are and held laws like Idahoโs not only target and discriminate against transgender women and girls but also discriminate against all women and girls. Idahoโs ban and all others like it are designed to alienate and stigmatize transgender people and weโll never stop fighting until all transgender youth are given the equal playing field they deserve.โโWe are extremely gratified โ for Lindsay, and for all trans youth โ at the courtโs recognition that the law and the facts strongly support treating people who are transgender fairly and equally,โ added Kathleen Hartnett of Cooley LLP.
There has been no public comment yet from Little or from Idaho Attorney General Raรบl Labrador. Attorney Christiana Kiefer of the anti-LGBTQ+ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, representing two cisgender female athletes who joined in defending the stateโs law, issued this statement: โWhen our laws ignore biological reality and allow males to compete in womenโs sports, women are harmed and denied athletic opportunities.โHowever, in a 2021 interview with The Advocate,Hecox countered the notion of trans women having an unfair advantage over cis women. She didnโt make the Boise State womenโs track team on first try. There were simply โtoo many good female athletesโ” at Boise State, she said, adding, โIโm kind of good…but not elite.โ
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