NEWYou can now listen to PK Press Club articles!
Lawyers for Lindsay Hecox, the transgender athlete at the center of a looming Supreme Court battle over protecting women’s sports, responded after a federal judge ruled against Hecox’s attempt to have the case thrown out.
Hecox initially filed a lawsuit in 2020 to block an Idaho state law, HB 500, which prohibits men from competing in women’s sports, in order to compete for the Boise State women’s cross country team. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in July, alongside a similar case in West Virginia involving a trans athlete, West Virginia v. BPJ.
Hecox then tried to have the lawsuits against Idaho and Gov. Brad Little dropped in September.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PK Press Club
Hecox’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Cooley, LLP and Legal Voice, provided a statement to PK Press Club Digital after U.S. District Judge David Nye on Tuesday denied the trans athlete’s motion to dismiss the case.
“Lindsay terminated her participation in all women’s athletic programs covered by HB 500 to prioritize completing her degree at Boise State and her personal safety and well-being. Lindsay withdrew her challenge to Idaho’s HB 500 and that remains unchanged,” the statement said. “In West Virginia v. BPJthe U.S. Supreme Court will consider a challenge to a nearly identical law. We will continue to defend the rights of all women and girls, including transgender women and girls. »
When Hecox initially filed the lawsuit in 2020, the trans athlete was joined by an anonymous biological student, Jane Doe, who was concerned about the possibility of being subject to the gender dispute vetting process. The challenge was successful as a federal judge blocked the Idaho state law.
INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS
Protesters for and against gender-affirming care for transgender minors demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court on December 4, 2024 in Washington, DC (José Luis Magana file/Associated Press)
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking the state law in 2023, before the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in July. Hecox then asked SCOTUS last month to drop the challenge, saying the athlete “has therefore decided to permanently withdraw and refrain from playing women’s sports at BSU or Idaho.”
Madison Kenyon, a former Idaho State University cross country and track and field runner, voluntarily joined the list of defendants in Little v. Hecox alongside Little after having to face a trans athlete during her freshman year in 2019.
“My coach sat us down in the room and told us that we were going to compete against a male athlete in a specific competition and let us know. And I remember sitting there and looking around the room going, ‘Well, what do my teammates think about this? What do we do?'” Kenyon told PK Press Club Digital. “So for us, it wasn’t a question of whether I was going to compete or not. I’m going to show everything I have and see what happens. And sure enough, this male athlete beat me, beat all my teammates and it kept happening throughout the season. So, that’s when I said, ‘This isn’t fair.’
Hecox’s efforts to have the case dismissed are not completely over, as SCOTUS still has to decide whether the case is moot. But Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who is leading the defense against Hecox, believes Nye’s decision is a “good sign” for their efforts to bring the case to the nation’s highest court and obtain a historic ruling.
Labrador previously said he hoped the Supreme Court would issue a ruling with a broader impact than just letting a state enforce its own specific law on the issue. He wants a new national precedent.
“I believe that’s what they’re going to do,” Labrador told PK Press Club Digital in an exclusive interview. “I think they’re going to have an important decision on whether men can compete in women’s sports and, more importantly, how to determine whether transgender people are protected by the federal constitution and state and federal laws.”
