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The attorneys for Lindsay Hecox, the transgender athlete at the center of an impending Supreme Court battle over the protection of women’s sports, have responded after a federal judge ruled against Hecox’s attempt to have the case dropped.
Hecox initially filed the lawsuit in 2020 to block an Idaho state law, HB 500, which prohibits males from competing in women’s sports, in order to compete for the Boise State women’s cross-country team. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in July, alongside a similar case in West Virginia involving a trans athlete, West Virginia v. B.P.J.
Hecox then tried to have the case against Idaho and Gov. Brad Little dropped in September.
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Hecox’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Cooley, LLP, and Legal Voice, provided a statement to Fox News Digital after U.S. District Judge David Nye rejected the trans athlete’s motion to dismiss the case on Tuesday.
“Lindsay ended her participation in any women’s athletic programs covered by HB 500 to prioritize finishing her degree at Boise State and her personal safety and wellness. Lindsay withdrew her challenge to Idaho’s HB 500 and that remains unchanged,” the statement read. “In West Virginia v. B.P.J., the U.S. Supreme Court will address a challenge to a nearly identical law. We will continue to advocate for the rights of all women and girls, including transgender women and girls.”
When Hecox initially filed the lawsuit in 2020, the trans athlete was joined by an anonymous biological female student, Jane Doe, who was concerned about the potential of being subjected to the sex dispute verification process. The challenge was successful, as a federal judge blocked Idaho’s state law.
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Protesters for and against gender-affirming care for transgender minors demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press file)
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld an injunction blocking the state law in 2023, before the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case back in July. Hecox then asked SCOTUS last month to drop the challenge, claiming the athlete “has therefore decided to permanently withdraw and refrain from playing any women’s sports at BSU or in Idaho.”
Former Idaho State University cross-country and track runner Madison Kenyon voluntarily joined the defendant list in Little v. Hecox alongside Little after having to compete against a trans athlete her freshman year in 2019.
“My coach sat us down in the room and told us that we would be competing against a male athlete at a specific meet and just let us know. And I remember sitting there and kind of like, looking around the room being like, ‘Well, what do my teammates think about this? What do we do?’” Kenyon previously told Fox News Digital. “So, for us, it was not a matter of whether I’m going to compete or not. I’m going to put everything out there that I have and see what happens. And sure enough, this male athlete beat me, beat all my teammates and that continued to happen the entire season. So, that’s when I said, ‘This isn’t fair.'”
Hecox’s efforts to have the case dropped aren’t completely over, as SCOTUS must still rule on whether the case is moot. But Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who is leading the defense against Hecox, believes Nye’s ruling is a “good sign” for their efforts to take the case to the highest court in the nation, and achieve a landmark ruling.
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Labrador previously said he hopes for the Supreme Court to cast a decision with a wider impact than just letting one state carry out its own specific law on the issue. He wants a new national precedent.
“I believe that that’s what they’re gonna do,” Labrador previously told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “I think they’re going to have a big ruling on whether men can participate in women’s sports, and more importantly, how to determine whether transgender individuals are protected by the federal constitution and state and federal laws.”
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