The Supreme Court of the United States is set to consider the legality of a West Virginia law that could have implications on Texas laws banning biological men from participating in women’s sports. 

The Supreme Court’s decision could have major implications across the country as more than two dozen states have similar laws and policies to the one in West Virginia, known as the Save Women’s Sports Act. Texas has also passed similar bans at both the K-12 and collegiate levels in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened investigations into swimming, fencing, and tennis organizations, in addition to suing schools such as Dallas ISD. 

If the Supreme Court holds that West Virginia’s law violates Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding, it would likely lead to the overturn of Texas’ laws. To that end, Texas joined 25 other states in filing an amicus brief supporting West Virginia’s legal claims and asking SCOTUS to overturn the Virginia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s injunction. 

On Jan. 13, West Virginia will argue that its state law prohibiting biological boys from competing on girls’ teams in public school sports should be upheld. The case, styled West Virginia v. B.P.J., stems from the parent of a biological male — identified as B.P.J. in court filings — who identifies as a female and sought to participate in girls’ track and field. The case has made it to the high court after the lower courts enjoined the state law, allowing the minor student to continue participating in the girls’ sport.

The brief, filed on behalf of B.P.J., who is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups, argues that West Virginia’s law violated federal education law by subjecting the minor  “to unlawful ‘discrimination’ under Title IX.” 

The filing also claims that B.P.J. did not unfairly disenfranchise biological girls because by the time the student was in the sixth grade, they were “too slow to run track and never [won] a competition in any event during the three seasons of play that the district court’s preliminary injunction afforded her.”

West Virginia, on the other hand, argued in its own brief that states have a right to affirm “that biological differences drive the distinction between boys’ and girls’ sports,” and that Title IX was originally intended to guarantee “that women and girls had a real chance to compete safely and fairly.” 

“More recently, though, the lines have begun to blur,” West Virginia said. “Biological males identifying as female have increasingly competed against females in women’s sports. Female athletes have been demoralized, as they have been pushed further down the competitive ladder, out of tournaments, and off their teams.”

“Neither Title IX nor the Equal Protection Clause compels West Virginia to classify biological males as girls,” Texas and the multistate coalition wrote in their supporting brief, calling the lower court’s decision to rule against the law “profoundly wrong.” 

Recent rulings from the Supreme Court suggest the case could go either way. When the Fourth Circuit originally stopped West Virginia’s law in 2023, SCOTUS refused to intervene and allowed biologically male students, such as B.P.J., to participate in girls’ sports. SCOTUS also rejected an appeal for emergency relief from South Carolina after the Fourth Circuit blocked a law banning males from using women’s restrooms in schools. 

In 2025, however, SCOTUS upheld in a 6-3 decision a Tennessee law that banned a number of gender transition medical interventions for minors in United States v. Skrmetti.