Explaining the Supreme Court ruling empowering states to ban transgender female athletes from competing in women’s sports

[The Supreme Court] issued a narrow decision focused specifically on the unique context of sports,” ACLU senior counsel Joshua Block said. “It didn’t issue a broader decision saying that Title IX, in general, didn’t protect transgender students. … And it didn’t issue a sweeping ruling saying that under the Constitution it’s perfectly fine to discriminate based on transgender status.”

The decision leaves many questions. Here are some answers.

Does the ruling impact transgender athletes in all 50 states?

It does not.  … The Supreme Court did not say that Title IX requires transgender girls and women to be barred from participation in girls’ and women’s sports.

In other words, if a transgender athlete was eligible to play school sports yesterday — which is the case in 21 states including California and Massachusetts — they still are today. The inverse is also true in the 27 states that have passed restrictive laws.

How will the ruling affect sports teams and leagues outside of schools?

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Title IX applies only to educational institutions, and the equal protection clause generally applies only to state and government actors. …

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here