by Jonathan Turley at Res ipsa loquitur — The thing itself speaks
U.S. District Judge David Nye just rejected a last-minute effort to scuttle a Supreme Court case on transgender athletes. The Little v. Hecox lawsuit was initially filed by Lindsay Hecox in 2020, challenging a state law barring the biologically male athlete from joining the women’s cross-country team at Boise State. After winning before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review. Hecox clearly did not like the prospects on appeal and sought to withdraw the case after the granting of certiorari. Judge Nye just denied that effort.
In the lawsuit, Nye was joined by an anonymous biological female student, Jane Doe, who objected to the sex dispute verification process.
Judge Nye denied the motion to dismiss as too late, ruling that “[Idaho] has a fair right to have its arguments heard and adjudicated once and for all.” He added that “the Court feels [Hecox’s] mootness argument is, as above, somewhat manipulative to avoid Supreme Court review and should not be endorsed.”
After a district court ruled for Hecox, the Ninth Circuit upheld the injunction blocking the state law in 2023. Counsel for Hecox argued that the athlete “has … decided to permanently withdraw and refrain from playing any women’s sports at BSU or in Idaho.”
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Kristen Waggoner argued against the effort to drop the litigation before the Supreme Court could rule.
This is one of two cases focused on the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports to be heard by the Supreme Court this term. The prospects, in my view, favor the challengers on appeal and a ruling in favor of such state laws.
West Virginia is also appealing to restore the “Save Women’s Sports Act” in 2021,…
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