Supreme Court Hearing on Transgender Athletes Draws Attention

During a Supreme Court hearing regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) took issue with the refusal to define sex, specifically targeting ACLU attorney Joshua Bullock. Bullock, who represents West Virginia’s transgender athlete Becky Pepper Jackson, urged the justices not to attempt to define sex in their consideration of the case. He argued, “I don’t think the purpose of Title IX is to establish a precise definition of sex.”

Later, he somewhat conceded by stating, “I think you can accept for the sake of this case that we’re talking about what they call biological sex.” However, when asked post-hearing to clarify the definition of sex, Bullock did not respond and quickly left the scene.

Mace shared a clip of Bullock avoiding the definition question and criticized the ACLU, stating, “If the ACLU can’t even define what sex is, then it has no credibility lecturing anyone about sexism.” She indicated that this was central to their argument.

John Barsh from the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, working with female athletes and the state of West Virginia, expressed confusion over Bullock’s reluctance to define gender. He remarked, “It’s just bizarre. I don’t see how you can decide on a case that interprets gender by not defining it under Title IX and under the Equal Protection Clause.”

Barsh emphasized that when Title IX was established, it was based on biological distinctions, pointing out that it referenced each gender specifically. He questioned how the court might navigate this issue without a clear definition of gender from the ACLU.

During the hearing, Bullock downplayed any negative impact on other female athletes on the cross country team due to Pepper Jackson’s participation, stating that cross country is a sport without cuts. However, Justice Neil Gorsuch reminded him that many sports do involve cuts, which could be influenced by this ruling.

Bullock claimed that some female athletes may not make teams purely based on their abilities, acknowledging the unfortunate situation where a cisgender female could lose a spot to a transgender athlete. “No one likes to lose, and no one likes not to make the team,” he noted. Yet he considered the real question to be whether transgender girls have an unfair advantage in competition.

At one point, Bullock discussed the implications for athletes like Pepper Jackson, mentioning that for some, being assigned male at birth and placed on a boys’ team could be damaging.