Plaintiffs dropping lawsuit against Arizona transgender athlete law, Horne says

The plaintiffs who sued to block an Arizona law banning transgender girls from girls’ school sports teams are dropping their lawsuit following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar case, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced Tuesday.

“Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that these laws are not unconstitutional, the plaintiff in our case has volunteered to dismiss the case. This is a victory for girl athletes and for common sense,” Horne said in a press release.

The nation’s high court ruled June 30 that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia on transgender girls and women competing on girls’ and women’s school athletic teams do not violate the Constitution.

The decision removed a longstanding legal issue that kept Arizona’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” from being enforced.

Background of Arizona’s transgender athlete law

The Arizona law was passed in 2022, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office, but two families with transgender daughters challenged it in court.

A U.S. District Court judge in Tucson blocked it in July 2023. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, after which Horne sought a review from the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs included a 15-year-old volleyball player and an 11-year-old who wanted to play girls’ soccer, basketball and cross country. In court filings, they were named Jane Doe and Megan Roe.

The lawsuit argued that the law violated federal Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds, and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, declined to defend the law in federal court, but Horne, a Republican, carried on with the appeal using funds from the Department of Education budget.

“There had been numerous articles about girls who worked hard on their sports, hoping to make the team, or even get a college scholarship or compete for the Olympics,” Horne said in Tuesday’s release. “Then they had to compete with a biological boy who was bigger, stronger and faster from birth. They could not compete. Their dreams were shattered and they were devastated. They no longer need to fear those outcomes.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Serena O’Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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