{"id":416,"date":"2026-07-15T20:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=416"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:38:20","slug":"dear-jurisprudence-did-the-progressive-justices-really-sell-out-trans-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=416","title":{"rendered":"Dear Jurisprudence: Did the Progressive Justices Really Sell Out Trans Athletes?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sign up for Executive Dysfunction, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story each week about how Trump is changing the law\u2014or how the law is pushing back. You\u2019ll also receive updates on the latest from Slate\u2019s Jurisprudence team.<\/p>\n

Read more Todd Blanche\u2019s Most Blatant Abuse of Power Is Almost Laughable<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This week\u2019s Slate Plus bonus episode of <\/em>Amicus<\/em> is another entry in our occasional \u201cDear (Juris)Prudence\u201d series, in which we invite listeners to ask their burning questions about the law and answer them as best we can. Write to <\/em>amicus@slate.com<\/em> to pose a question to Dahlia and Mark. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear (Juris)Prudence,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can you please critique the reasoning and the effects of the three liberal justices concurring in the Title IX holding of<\/strong>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Adena Goldberg<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mark Joseph Stern: <\/strong>There has been a lot of misunderstanding about exactly what the liberal justices did in B.P.J.<\/em>, and I want to clear that up. The three liberals did side with the supermajority in rejecting B.P.J.\u2019s claim that West Virginia violated Title IX by excluding all transgender girls from playing on female teams. But that agreement can obscure a much sharper divergence. For instance, Justice Sonia Sotomayor\u2019s dissent spent 29 pages arguing that these categorical sports bans are likely unconstitutional. She made a strong argument that they violate the equal protection clause, and urged the courts to send this case back down for a trial so that the judge could hear all of the evidence and render a decision. Of course, the supermajority did not heed her advice.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Iran Bluster This Week Revealed the Only Thing That Really Matters to Him<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Then Sotomayor spent three pages on the Title IX question, concurring with the majority that West Virginia\u2019s approach to athletics does not violate Title IX\u2014as the plaintiff presented her argument<\/em>. Sotomayor explained that the plaintiff \u201cdid not dispute\u201d that \u201csex\u201d in Title IX means \u201cbiological sex,\u201d or sex was assigned at birth. And the justice wrote that under this argument<\/em>, B.P.J.\u2019s Title IX claims must fail, because both Title IX and a later amendment specifically allow for some discrimination on the basis of biological sex. Most notably, they permit sex segregation in school athletics by sometimes requiring the creation of boys\u2019 teams and girls\u2019 teams. Sotomayor did not endorse<\/em> this definition of sex in Title IX. But because it was the definition conceded by the plaintiff, she agreed with the majority that B.P.J. could be excluded from the girls\u2019 team because her \u201csex identified at birth\u201d was male.<\/p>\n

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a separate, solo dissent that expressed serious doubt about the plaintiff\u2019s concession. She explained that she was not at all convinced that Title IX only means \u201cbiological sex.\u201d And she wrote about how, in the sex discrimination context, there is a general prohibition against \u201csex stereotyping\u201d\u2014punishing someone because they don\u2019t conform to stereotypes assigned to their sex. \u201cThe prohibition against stereotyping,\u201d Jackson noted, \u201cis difficult to explain fully by reference to sex assigned at birth. A sex stereotype often will but need not have anything to do with an individual\u2019s sex assigned at birth. A transgender woman penalized for being perceived as aggressive has experienced discrimination \u2018on the basis of sex\u2019 just as much as a cisgender woman has, no matter that the transgender woman\u2019s behavior matches expectations of her sex assigned at birth. Either way, the institution has imposed its gender-based expectations upon her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson then wrote that if the court \u201cproperly construed\u201d Title IX to go beyond biological sex, then West Virginia\u2019s ban may well run afoul of the law. The state, after all, is forcing B.P.J. to live and play as one sex even though she identifies as another. Jackson didn\u2019t render an ultimate decision on this question, but strongly suggested that she would side with a transgender litigant who presented this argument in a future case. And I think she\u2019s right: Biological sex, or sex assigned at birth, is not the only way to define \u201csex\u201d in Title IX. I do understand why the liberals concurred on this one narrow part of the supermajority\u2019s opinion. But it is important to remember that they vehemently, emphatically dissented from the supermajority\u2019s evisceration of the equal protection clause.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Brett Kavanaugh May Have Accidentally Opened the Door to New Gun Restrictions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s an attempt to clear that up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18,11,72,53,15,71],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jurisprudence","tag-judiciary","tag-jurisprudence","tag-ketanji-brown-jackson","tag-lgbtq","tag-supreme-court","tag-transgender"],"yoast_head":"\nDear Jurisprudence: Did the Progressive Justices Really Sell Out Trans Athletes? - Home Move Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=416\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Jurisprudence: Did the Progressive Justices Really Sell Out Trans Athletes? 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