London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

The Supreme Court allowed a transgender girl to continue playing sports, but a Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissent signals their willingness to review the hot-button issue

The Supreme Court allowed a transgender girl to continue playing sports, but a Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissent signals their willingness to review the hot-button issue

Alito and Thomas wrote that the dispute "concerns an important issue that this Court is likely to be required to address in the near future."
A majority of the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a transgender girl to continue participating on her middle school's girls' track team as a legal case challenging a state ban plays out. Yet two conservative justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — dissented from the decision, suggesting the court may soon wade into the Republican-led culture war over trans athletes.

Alito, in an opinion joined by Thomas, wrote that the dispute "concerns an important issue that this Court is likely to be required to address in the near future," particularly, whether states can restrict "participation in women's or girls' sports based on genes or physiological or anatomical characteristics."

The two justices, widely considered to be the court's most conservative members, said they would have granted West Virginia's request to enforce a law requiring students to play on sports teams based on their biological sex. The law prevents transgender students from participating in athletics that correspond with their gender identities.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old transgender girl on her school's track team, challenged the April 2021 law, known as the Save Women's Sports Act, in a May 2021 lawsuit. Her lawyers argued that the ban violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection, as well as Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination.

A federal district judge initially stopped West Virginia from enforcing the law, letting Pepper-Jackson play on the team, but eventually sided with the state. Pepper-Jackson appealed the decision, and a divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit temporarily blocked the law.

West Virginia then turned to the Supreme Court to lift that ruling. But in its decision Thursday, a majority of the justices refused to do so. The court did not provide an explanation, which is typical for cases brought to its emergency docket.

"I would grant the State's application," Alito and Thomas said in their dissent. "Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation."

The majority of the justices' refusal to intervene in the case at this stage, and the two justices' dissent, signal that the court may later consider the hot-button issue winding its way through lower courts.

West Virginia is among a slew of Republican-led states that have enacted restrictions on transgender students from playing on athletic teams that align with their gender identities. In a statement on Thursday, West Virginia's attorney general expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court's order.

"This is a procedural setback, but we remain confident that when this case is ultimately determined on the merits, we will prevail," Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said. "We maintain our stance that this is a common sense law—we have a very strong case. It's just basic fairness and common sense to not have biological males play in women's sports."
Comments

Oh ya 3 year ago
There are 2 genders boys and girls, and then there are a million mental health issues. Of the wotld is afraid of offending the mentally ill then make a 3rd class in sports. We could have boy sports, girl sports and then mentally ill sports. We have all heard the saying putting lipstick on a pig but even that does not make it a girl or in fact a boy in drag

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×