Circuit Court of Appeals again blocked the state from applying it. Pepper-Jackson appealed, and last month the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. ACLU via AFP - Getty ImagesĪ federal judge initially ruled in Pepper-Jackson's favor but concluded in January that the law was most likely legal and allowed it to be enforced against her. Becky Pepper-Jackson in Bridgeport, W.Va. She is undergoing puberty-delaying treatment and hormone therapy.

Her lawyers said the law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which requires that the law apply equally to everyone, as well as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.ĭuring the litigation, Pepper-Jackson has participated on her school's cross country and track teams, where she has been welcomed by teammates and coaches, her lawyers said. They called the state's attempt to enforce the law 'a baseless and cruel effort.' 'We are grateful that the Supreme Court today acknowledged that there was no emergency and that Becky should be allowed to continue to participate with her teammates on her middle school track team,' Pepper-Jackson's lawyers said in a joint statement. She is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the LGBTQ group Lambda Legal. The law was challenged by Pepper-Jackson, then 11, who wanted to try out for the cross country and track teams in her middle school in Harrison County. In barring transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at the middle school, high school and college levels, the law says gender is “based solely on the individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” As such, it says, a female is a person “whose biological sex determined at birth as female.” Becky Pepper-Jackson in Bridgeport, W.Va., in 2021. 'This is a procedural setback, but we remain confident that when this case is ultimately determined on the merits, we will prevail,' West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said in a statement. Alito in a brief opinion faulted a lower court for failing to explain its reasoning. Two of the court's conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, noted that they would have granted the application.

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