West Virginia and Idaho asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to decide whether states can lawfully enforce bans on transgender students competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The two appeals from GOP-led states mark the first time the high court has been asked to decide the question in a substantive way amid a yearslong legal battle waged by transgender students and their advocates against a slew of such bans enacted in more than two dozen states.
The justices have already said they will decide a separate case concerning state efforts to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, but West Virginia and Idaho said that the courts eventual decision in that matter will not resolve the issue at the center of their cases.
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