Bathrooms to ballfields: Transgender athlete ban one of many LGBTQ fights brewing in courts

WASHINGTON – West Virginia has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce a state law banning transgender athletes from joining girls sports teams, one of a growing number of lawsuits involving transgender rights playing out in federal courts.

Because the case arrives on the emergency docket, the Supreme Court will likely  decide the matter relatively quickly – potentially within a matter of weeks.

West Virginia officials approved the prohibition in 2021. The law requires public schools to create sports teams based on sex assigned at birth. A 12-year-old transgender girl and her family sued, asserting the ban violates the Constitution and federal law. A federal appeals court in Virginia blocked the law's enforcement last month.

The Supreme Court hasn't taken a case involving the rights of transgender Americans in years, but a series of legal battles brewing on school bathrooms, sports teams and health care continue to percolate in lower federal courts.

Here's a look at some of those other cases.

What are some of the biggest transgender cases pending in federal court?

• School sports: The West Virginia case is the first to reach the Supreme Court but  there are others pending that deal with school sports. A federal appeals court in New York will rehear a closely watched challenge to a policy in Connecticut that allows transgender girls to compete on girls' sports teams. The plaintiffs say the policy "actively harms female athletes." A three-judge panel of the court in December sided with the state's high schools on narrow grounds. The full appeals court will hear arguments in the case, Soule v. CIAC, on June 6.

• School bathrooms: A federal appeals court in December backed a Florida school district's policy banning transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. The 7-4 opinion, which has not yet been appealed, reached a different conclusion from an appeals court in Virginia considering a similar policy – creating a split among courts that may entice the Supreme Court to review the issue. The case is Adams v. School Board of St. Johns County.

• Health insurance: Advocates are awaiting a decision from the Virginia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit about North Carolina's exclusion of coverage for gender affirming treatment in the state health insurance plan for government employees. The court appeared divided during arguments in January, Reuters reported. The case is Kadel v. Folwell.

May schools decline to tell parents about a student's gender identity?

The 4th Circuit on Thursday picked apart guidelines adopted recently by a Maryland school district that allow transgender students to create a support plan to ensure they can participate in school free from discrimination. Three anonymous parents sued over a provision that allows the students and the school to keep that plan confidential if the student believes their parents will be unsupportive.

Though the case deals with the particulars of the Maryland district's policy, the decision could have far reaching implications for other schools wrestling with how to ensure transgender students don't face discrimination while also answering to parents – some of whom are seeking more control over what happens inside classrooms.

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The three judges, including two named by former President Donald Trump and a third nominated by former President George H. W. Bush, appeared skeptical of the district's argument.

"It's not the state that makes these decisions, it's the parents," U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer said during the arguments. Schools, he said, are "supposed to be teaching children. They're not supposed to be engaged in the transition of gender."

But the school district counters that the parents have not been injured by the policy – they don't allege that their children are transgender – and a District Court dismissed the lawsuit in August. U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama and who has since retired from the bench, said the guidelines were designed to apply flexibly to students and parents.

The "guidelines neither mandate nor encourage the exclusion or distrust of parents, but aim to include parents and other family in the support network they are intended to create," Grimm wrote.

Supreme Court has passed on similar transgender cases in recent years

The Supreme Court last debated transgender rights in 2019, ultimately siding with three employees who were fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

A 6-3 majority ruled in 2020 that when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars workplace discrimination on the basis of "sex," that also covers sexual orientation and gender identity.

Bathroom battle: Trans student back at Supreme Court over school bathroom policy 

Pass: Supreme Court declines to hear Virginia school's transgender bathroom case

But the nation's highest court has since passed on a number of high-profile appeals. In 2021, the court declined to take up a case about school bathrooms. At issue was a Virginia policy that required transgender students to use unisex bathrooms. Gavin Grimm, a transgender man who was denied access to the boys’ bathroom when he was a student, sued over the policy. By not taking the case, the Supreme Court let stand a ruling from an appeals court in Virginia that found the policy was discriminatory.

Months later, the court declined to hear a dispute between a transgender man, Evan Minton, and a Catholic-affiliated hospital that denied him a hysterectomy. The decision left in place a lower court ruling that permitted Minton to continue his case.

"We deserve health care, we deserve restroom access, we deserve to play on sports teams," Minton said at the time. "We deserve better."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: West Virginia asks Supreme Court to revive transgender athlete ban