Supreme Court rejects Biden-Harris request for transgender student athletes

The Biden-Harris Administration’s request to update parts of Title IX that include protections from discrimination for transgender students was struck down in a 5-4 vote by the United States Supreme Court. The update would have covered sexual orientation and gender identity.
In response to the claims, the administration contended the injunctions were too overreaching, thus asking the Supreme Court to block prohibitions on gender identity discrimination, per The Hill. Had the Supreme Court not blocked the update, it would have provided accommodations for pregnant students to retaliation protections.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented, claiming the lower court’s rulings were “overbroad.” “By blocking the Government from enforcing scores of regulations that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts went beyond their authority to remedy the discrete harms alleged here,” she wrote.
Although the Supreme Court struck down the update, there is a chance the issue will return to the Supreme Court, provided it passes through the lower appeals courts again. Republican attorneys general claimed the update to Title IX would have eventually allowed biological men to compete in women’s sports.
That said, this is not the first time there has been pushback with allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports, particularly women’s sports. Recently, a group of more 100 female athletes and 26 states petitioned the Supreme Court to take up a challenge over laws that ban transgender women from facing off against biological female athletes.
“A growing number of women and girls have been facing the humiliating and damaging experience of being forced to compete against males who identify as transgender in the women’s sports category,” the filing claimed, per Fox News.
“It is hard to express the pain, humiliation, frustration and shame women experience when they are forced to compete against males in sport. It is public shaming and suffering, an exclusion from women’s own category.”
Additionally, Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, believes the changes would hinder women’s rights. In particular, the Independent Women’s Forum Ambassador explained how in her opinion, men would be put in a position to succeed against women.
“People are taking advantage of the system, and they will continue to do that until we push back and put policies in to fix these things,” she said, per Fox News. “The new Title IX rewrite is a great example of pushing back against women’s rights.”
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The issue of transgender athletes competing against their preferred gender has been a topic of discussion in recent weeks, even if it is unwarranted. During the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was embroiled in controversy, being wrongly accused of being a “biological male” despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
Italy’s Angela Carini peddled the accusation that Khelif was a “biological male” after being punched in the face and subsequently quitting the match just 46 seconds into it. Since then, many pundits and fans online have called out Khelif’s participation, despite the International Olympic Committee allowing the Algerian to compete.
After winning gold and proving to her doubters that she was a woman, Khelif is taking legal action against Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling. “The criminal investigation will determine who initiated this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign but will also have to focus on those who fueled this digital lynching. The unfair harassment suffered by the boxing champion will remain the biggest stain of these Olympic Games,” Khelif’s attorney Nabil Boudi said on X.