FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16th, 2025
Contact: Ashley Vaughan
ashley@ncvalues.org

NC VALUES INSTITUTE FILES AMICUS BRIEF URGING SUPREME COURT TO PROTECT FAIRNESS IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

Yesterday our sister organization, the NC Values Institute, filed an amicus curiae brief in Little v. Hecox & West Virginia v. Jackson urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse recent rulings by the Fourth and Ninth Circuits that threaten the future of safety and fairness in women’s sports. The courts blocked state laws in West Virginia and Idaho that protect female athletes by requiring sports teams to be designated on the basis of biological sex. The brief emphasizes that separating athletic teams based on sex is both constitutional and necessary to preserve equal opportunities for women.

“Title IX was enacted to protect women and girls and to ensure they have opportunities in sports, not erase them,” said Tami Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the NC Values Coalition and the NC Values Institute. “It is not only unfair, but it is also dangerous when males are allowed to compete against females. The Supreme Court must uphold laws like those passed in North Carolina, Idaho, and West Virginia that protect fairness and safety in women and girls’ sports.”

The brief highlights recent real-world consequences of males competing against females that took place in North Carolina, where in late 2022 a female high school volleyball player suffered severe head and neck injuries after a spike from a male competing on the girls’ team. It also warns against the reckless expansion of the Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, which redefined “sex” by identity – not biology – under Title VII in the context of employment discrimination. Lower courts have improperly extended Bostock to education and athletics—areas that raise fundamentally different issues tied to biological differences between men and women.

The NC Values Coalition supported the passage of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which went into effect in North Carolina on August 16, 2023, ensuring that female athletes are not forced to compete against biological males. The Court’s decision in this case will have nationwide implications for the future of Title IX and women’s athletics.

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