The United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, June 30, that state bans on transgender athletes in women’s and girls sports does not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution or the Title XI Equal Protection Clause.
The cases West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox involved two transgender athletes: Becky Pepper-Jackson, a high school athlete in West Virginia, and Lindsay Hecox, an Idaho college student.
Despite Pepper-Jackson and Hecox’s arguments that their states’ bans on their sports participation violated their Title XI and constitutional rights, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that West Virginia and Idaho were allowed to uphold their sex-based restrictions in their state.
States such as New York and California that already allow transgender athletes to compete are not affected by this change; however, over 25 states that already have some restrictions on transgender athletes could soon see a ban like the ones in West Virginia and Idaho.
Nevada could be a state impacted by this ruling, as Gov. Joe Lombardo has been very vocal about his belief that Nevada legislation should prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports.
Earlier this year, Lombardo proposed a ballot initiative supporting this ban; however, it failed to receive enough signatures to qualify for the 2026 ballot.
Still, Lombardo “remains committed to protecting opportunities for female athletes while treating every Nevadan with dignity and respect,” as he stated in his recent post on X.
As for University sports, Nevada is no stranger to facing controversy on the topic of transgender athletes. In October 2024, the Nevada volleyball team chose to forfeit their game against fellow Mountain West competitor San Jose State University (SJSU) due to a transgender woman on their roster.
Many of the Nevada athletes, including volleyball captain at the time Sia Liillii, spoke out against competing in the SJSU game before eventually announcing that they would forfeit the match under Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution.
This section, along with other Nevada laws, states that a public university like Nevada can legally declare a forfeit for reasons related to gender identity or expression.
While the team did receive their fair share of backlash over their decision to forfeit, the support they received politically — even making national headlines with Fox News — is what is drawing attention to Nevada after the recent Supreme Court ruling.
“Nevadans overwhelmingly believe that female athletes deserve a level playing field and the opportunity to compete against other biological females.” Lombardo, who looks to be reelected in this Nov. 2026 election, said in his post on X.
