A federal judge on Monday issued a
ruling blocking Idaho from enforcing a law that prohibits transgender
girls from participating in athletic competition.
U.S. District Judge David Nye was
appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017.
In his 87-page ruling, Nye said that
the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution.
The Republican-led Idaho Legislature
approved the “Fairness in Women's Sports Act” in March as the
coronavirus epidemic was taking off. Governor Brad Little, a
Republican, signed the bill into law just days after it cleared the
Senate. He also signed another bill that prohibits transgender people
from changing their gender marker on their birth certificates. A
federal judge has ruled against the “Idaho Vital Statistics Act.”
(Related: Court
blocks Idaho law prohibiting transgender people from changing sex on
birth certificates.)
Supporters of the law said that it is
needed because transgender women and girls have a physical advantage.
Opponents argued that the bill subjects transgender athletes to
invasive tests.
The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of
groups – the ACLU, the ACLU of Idaho, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP –
on behalf of a track athlete at Boise State University who is
transgender and a junior at Boise High School who is cisgender.
In his ruling, Nye cited the recent
Supreme Court decision in Bostock that expanded the definition
of sex to include gender identity.
“The proponents’ argument that
Lindsay and other transgender women are not excluded from school
sports because they can simply play on the men’s team is analogous
to claiming homosexual individuals are not prevented from marrying
under statutes preventing same-sex marriage because lesbians and gays
could marry someone of a different sex,” Nye
wrote, referring to the transgender plaintiff Lindsay Hecox.
(Related: Judge
cites Bostock in blocking Trump's rollback of transgender
protections in health care.)