Statements from ELC Executive Director Robert Kim on Today’s Supreme Court Decisions

Education Law Center condemns today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. BPJ upholding discriminatory laws banning transgender women and girls from school athletics.

The ruling consolidated two cases brought by K-12 and collegiate student athletes challenging their states’ bans on transgender student participation in school sports competitions. By deciding that these bans in Idaho and West Virginia neither violate Title IX nor the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the Supreme Court has weakened transgender student rights and validated discriminatory sports bans across 27 states. But importantly, the decision also allows states to adopt and enforce trans-inclusive policies without violating Title IX.

“Today’s ruling represents a significant setback in the quest for equity and inclusion for students, who are entitled to equal participation in all education programs and activities. Categorical bans on the participation of transgender and nonbinary student athletes are antithetical to the arc of education civil rights history, which has, over time, offered equal protection and recognition to vulnerable student populations not identified by previous courts,” said Robert Kim, Education Law Center Executive Director. 

“But now, trans students in states with these discriminatory laws no longer have access to the academic and athletic opportunities that competitive interscholastic sports provide,” Mr. Kim continued. “ELC remains steadfast in our commitment to equality and justice for transgender and all LGBTQ+ students.”

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The Supreme Court ruled today in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the United States are citizens at birth, regardless of their parent’s immigration status, striking down the President’s 2025 executive order which sought to prevent the children of immigrants from gaining citizenship and overturn over one hundred years’ worth of precedent. The decision settles a question that had the potential to destabilize the lives of immigrant families and the schools that serve them. 

In her concurrence, Justice Jackson wrote that citizenship has always meant “the right to have rights,” a phrase that speaks directly to what is at stake for the students and families Education Law Center works with every day.

“Today’s ruling confirms what the Constitution has guaranteed since 1868,” said ELC Executive Director Robert Kim. “For families who have spent the last year and a half wondering whether their children’s citizenship was up for debate, that confirmation matters enormously. Our schools work best when parents and guardians can focus on their children’s education, not their legal status.”

Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x240