West Virginia v. B. P. J.
The Court holds that, under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, schools may maintain separate women's and girls' sports teams for biological females and may determine eligibility for those teams based on biological sex. Title IX permits schools to provide sex-separated teams defined by biological sex, and limiting girls' and women's teams to biological females does not violate equal protection because the sex-based classification is substantially related to the important interests of safety and competitive fairness.
Case background
In 2021, West Virginia enacted the Save Women’s Sports Act, which prohibits male students from playing on female teams and provides that sex is determined by biology. Respondent B. P. J., a biological male who identifies as female and has taken puberty blockers and hormones, sought to compete on the girls’ cross-country and track-and-field teams. B. P. J. sued West Virginia and relevant officials, alleging violations of Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia granted summary judgment for the State on both claims, but the Fourth Circuit reversed on the Title IX issue and remanded for further fact-finding on the equal protection claim. In a companion case, Lindsay Hecox — a biological male who identifies as female and competes in college sports — challenged Idaho’s similar Fairness in Women’s Sports Act on equal protection grounds; the District Court enjoined that law and the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Court granted certiorari in both cases and decided them together.
Questions Presented
(1) Whether Title IX prevents a state from consistently designating girls’ and boys’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth.
(2) Whether the Equal Protection Clause prevents a state from offering separate boys’ and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth.
Holding
Title IX allows schools to provide separate women’s and men’s sports teams defined by biological sex, and West Virginia has permissibly maintained female sports for biological females consistent with Title IX. The term “sex” in Title IX, the Javits Amendment, and the implementing regulations refers to biological sex, and nothing in those texts requires schools to allow biological males who identify as female to play on girls’ and women’s teams. West Virginia and Idaho also did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by limiting female teams to biological females: that sex-based classification is substantially related to the important governmental interests of safety and competitive fairness, and the States need not make individualized, athlete-by-athlete exceptions to satisfy intermediate scrutiny.
The Court
Justice Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett joined. Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch each filed concurring opinions. Justice Sotomayor filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which Justices Kagan and Jackson joined. Justice Jackson filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part.
What this episode contains
This episode is an AI-narrated reading of the majority opinion in West Virginia v. B. P. J., written by Justice Kavanaugh.
AI disclosure: The voice in this episode is AI-generated, using a machine learning model styled to loosely resemble the authoring justice. Tone, inflection, pacing, and emphasis are artifacts of the model and should not be attributed to Justice Kavanaugh. The text being read is the Court’s published majority opinion, lightly adapted to improve readability for the spoken format.