Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Page Number: 84.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

47 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

School  Dist.,  897  F. 3d  518,  533  (CA3  2018),  cert.  denied, 
587 U. S. ___ (2019).
  Women’s sports.  Another issue that may come up under
both Title VII and Title IX is the right of a transgender in-
dividual  to  participate  on  a  sports  team  or  in  an  athletic
competition previously reserved for members of one biolog-
ical  sex.48    This  issue  has  already  arisen  under  Title  IX, 
where  it  threatens  to  undermine  one  of  that  law’s  major 
achievements, giving young women an equal opportunity to
participate  in  sports.  The  effect  of  the  Court’s  reasoning
may be to force young women to compete against students
who have a very significant biological advantage, including 
students who have the size and strength of a male but iden-
tify as female and students who are taking male hormones
in order to transition from female to male.  See, e.g., Com-
plaint in Soule v. Connecticut Assn. of Schools, No. 3:20–cv– 
00201  (D  Conn.,  Apr.  17,  2020)  (challenging  Connecticut 
policy  allowing  transgender  students  to  compete  in  girls’ 
high school sports); Complaint in Hecox v. Little, No. 1:20– 
cv–00184  (D  Idaho,  Apr.  15,  2020)  (challenging  state  law
that bars transgender students from participating in school 
sports  in  accordance  with  gender  identity).   Students  in 
these latter categories have found success in athletic com-
petitions reserved for females.49 

—————— 

48 A regulation allows single-sex teams, 34 CFR §106.41(b) (2019), but 

the statute itself would of course take precedence. 

49 “[S]ince 2017, two biological males [in Connecticut] have collectively
won 15 women’s state championship titles (previously held by ten differ-
ent Connecticut girls) against biologically female track athletes.”  Brief 
for Independent Women’s Forum et al. as Amici Curiae in No. 18–107, 
pp. 14–15. 

At the college level, a transgendered woman (biological male) switched 
from competing on the men’s Division II track team to the women’s Divi-
sion II track team at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire after
taking  a  year  of  testosterone  suppressants.    While  this  student  had 
placed  “eighth  out  of  nine  male  athletes  in  the  400  meter  hurdles  the