DOJ challenges state bans affecting transgender athletes and children as violations of federal law

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The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has challenged two bans affecting transgender people in West Virginia and Arkansas, saying they violate federal law.

On Thursday, the DOJ filed statements of interest in lawsuits seeking to overturn the two laws: One in West Virginia blocking transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports and another in Arkansas that blocks transgender children from undergoing gender-confirming treatments or surgery.

The DOJ said that both laws are in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

It further said that the West Virginia law violates Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex in education programming or activities benefitting from federal funds.

“A state law that limits or denies a particular class of people’s ability to participate in public, federally funded educational programs and activities solely because their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth violates both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause,” the Justice Department filing said. The state law “does exactly this”.

The law is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its West Virginia Chapter and Lamba Legal, with the organisations challenging the ban on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl blocked from being able to compete in cross-country in middle school due to the rule.

The DOJ said both laws violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. It also said the West Virginia law violates Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal funds.

“A state law that limits or denies a particular class of people’s ability to participate in public, federally funded educational programs and activities solely because their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth violates both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause,” the DOJ’s filing said.

West Virginia’s state law, it said, “does exactly this”.

On the Arkansas rule, which saw the state become the first to ban gender-confirming treatments and surgery for transgender children, the Justice Department said: “A state law that specifically denies a limited class of people the ability to receive medically necessary care from their healthcare providers solely on the basis of their sex assigned at birth violates the Equal Protection Clause.”

“These restrictions explicitly target transgender people,” the DOJ said.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit last month challenging the Arkansas rule, which is expected to take effect this summer on 28 July.