The attorneys general of 24 states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court’s decision to uphold a lower-court ruling to block the enforcement of a 2022 Arizona law that prohibits boys from competing in girls’ school sports.
In their amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court on Thursday, the attorneys general argued against the ruling that the law likely violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, and that their states have legislation similar to Arizona’s.
“In sports, equal access means a level playing field,” the attorneys general argued. “And a level playing field usually means sports teams divided by sex so that girls can compete against other girls.”
“Basing the distinction on biology rather than gender identity makes sense because it is the differences in biology—not gender identity—that call for separate teams in the first place: Whatever their gender identity, biological males are, on average, stronger and faster than biological females. If those average physical differences did not matter, there would be no need to segregate sports teams at all,” they continued.
The September 9 decision, made by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, agreed with the lower-court judge’s conclusion that there are no significant differences between prepubescent boy and girl athletes, the Associated Press reported.
The panel also concluded that the law, dubbed the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” is discriminatory to those who identify as transgender.
The September ruling only applies to two “transgender girls,” who are biological boys, whose parents filed a lawsuit to challenge the act, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
The attorneys general that filed the brief to the Supreme Court are from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
“Sports teams are divided by sex to begin with to give girls a level playing field so they’re not competing against boys,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement after the brief was filed. “Arizona’s law restricting girls’ sports teams to biological females is just common sense, and it protects girls from competing against bigger, stronger males who identify as females.”
In Alabama, where lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2023 to segregate sports teams at public schools including colleges and universities by biological sex, Attorney General Steve Marshall said that parents of female athletes are “rightfully outraged.”
“Our coalition is determined to preserve the 50 years of work that expanded opportunities and leveled the playing field for girls and women in sports. But the left continues to pander to a small minority of their base, urging states and courts to disregard years of scientific evidence showing that males have a competitive advantage over female athletes in competition,” Marshall said in a Friday statement. “Parents of daughters are rightfully outraged at the loss of positions on teams and college scholarships. As our multiple briefs to the Supreme Court show, it’s time to return to fairness in opportunity for sports.”
The case is Petersen v. Doe, No. 24-449 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
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