Transgender athlete’s attorneys react after SCOTUS battle advances

Lawyers for Lindsay Hecox, the transgender athlete at the center of an upcoming Supreme Court battle over the protection of women’s sports, have responded after a Federal judge ruled against it Hecox’s attempt to drop the case.

Hecox originally filed the lawsuit in 2020 to block an Idaho state law, HB 500, that bans men from competing in women’s sports Boise State Women’s Cross Country Team. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in July, along with a similar case in West Virginia involving a trans athlete, West Virginia v. BPJ

Hecox then tried to drop the case against Idaho and Gov. Brad Little in September.

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Hecox’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Cooley, LLP and Legal Voice issued a statement to Fox News Digital after U.S. District Judge David Nye denied the trans athlete’s motion to dismiss the case on Tuesday.

“Lindsay terminated her participation in all women’s athletic programs covered by HB 500 to prioritize the completion of her studies at Boise State and her personal safety and well-being. Lindsay withdrew her challenge to Idaho’s HB 500 and that remains unchanged,” the statement said. “In West Virginia vs. BPJThe U.S. Supreme Court will hear 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 first filed the lawsuit in 2020, the trans athlete was joined by an anonymous biological student, Jane Doe, who feared she might be subject to the sex dispute review process. The lawsuit was successful because a federal judge blocked the Idaho state law.

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A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 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 to drop the challenge last month, claiming the athlete “has therefore decided to permanently retire and no longer play women’s sports at BSU or Idaho.”

Former Idaho State University cross-country and track and field runner Madison Kenyon voluntarily joined Little on the list of defendants in Little v. Hecox after having to compete against a trans athlete in her first year in 2019.

“My coach sat us in the room and told us that we were going to be competing against a male athlete in a certain event and just let us know. And I remember sitting there and looking around the room and thinking, ‘Well, what do my teammates think about this? What are we doing?'” Kenyon previously told Fox News Digital. “So for us, it wasn’t a question of whether I compete or not. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and see what happens. And sure enough, this male athlete beat me, beat all of my teammates, and it stayed that way the whole season. That’s when I said, ‘That’s not fair.'”

Hecox’s efforts to have the case dropped are not yet fully complete as SCOTUS has yet to rule on whether the case is moot. But Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who is leading the defense against Hecox, believes Nye’s ruling bodes well for their efforts to take the case to the nation’s highest court and secure a landmark ruling.

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Labrador previously said he hoped the Supreme Court would make a decision with broader implications than just allowing one state to implement its own specific law on the issue. He wants a new national precedent.

“I believe they will,” Labrador previously told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “I think there will be a big decision about whether men can participate in women’s sports and, more importantly, how to determine whether transgender people are protected by the federal Constitution and state and federal laws.”

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