Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major victory for women’s athletics, upholding West Virginia’s law that preserves girls’ and women’s sports based on biological sex.
Mountain States Legal Foundation is proud to stand with West Virginia in this case by filing an amicus brief, but our brief explained that the case went beyond athletics. It also implicated the First Amendment rights of students, teachers, coaches, and school officials who should not be forced to abandon ordinary, biology-based language about men and women.
While much of the litigation centered on Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, MSLF warned that redefining “sex” to mean gender identity would have consequences far beyond the playing field. Once the law abandons the objective meaning of biological sex, schools and government institutions gain new power to compel speech and punish those who simply acknowledge biological reality.
For decades, Title IX has protected equal opportunities for women by recognizing that biological differences matter. The Court echoed MSLF’s point from Frontiero v. Richardson: that “sex,” as used in Title IX and this Court’s sex-discrimination precedent, refers to an immutable biological characteristic—not gender identity. The law has always permitted separate athletic teams, locker rooms, and other sex-specific spaces because men and women are different. That framework has never been about discrimination—it’s what allows schools to protect the privacy, safety, and equal athletic opportunity for women and girls.
MSLF’s brief explained that changing the legal definition of “sex” would inevitably create pressure to force students, teachers, and coaches to affirm gender identity through language they do not believe. Across the country, educators have already faced discipline for declining to use preferred pronouns, and students have been punished for expressing the view that biological sex is real.
The First Amendment exists to prevent exactly that kind of government coercion. Our Constitution protects every American’s right to speak freely, and just as importantly, the right not to be forced to speak an official government message.
This decision preserves West Virginia’s ability to protect women’s sports, but it also represents an important step toward restoring the original understanding of Title IX. The law was enacted to protect opportunities for women, not to erase the biological distinctions that made those protections necessary in the first place.
At Mountain States Legal Foundation, we were honored to help present these principles to the Court. Every amicus brief is an opportunity to defend the Constitution, influence the development of the law, and ensure that fundamental liberties are not overlooked.
