Name: Supreme Court hears trans athlete sports case
Uploaded: 2026-01-19T15:07:09.551Z
Duration: 6 min 20 s
Description: Kelsey Reinhardt, President and CEO of CatholicVote, joins to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a transgender athlete sports case.

Kelsey Reinhardt, President and CEO of CatholicVote, joins to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a transgender athlete sports case.

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a case regarding the participation of transgender athletes in sports, with justices pressing attorneys for clear definitions of 'man' and 'woman' for equal protection purposes. The inability of plaintiffs to provide a definitive answer became a central issue, as did concerns about the implications for women's sports and Title IX protections.

Testimony included perspectives from advocates and affected students, with some arguing that current policies undermine opportunities for female athletes. The court is expected to issue a ruling on the matter during the upcoming summer, with the outcome likely to have significant legal and cultural impact.

Supreme Court hears trans athlete sports case

We want to bring in the president and CEO of Catholic Vote, Kelsey Reinhart. Kelsey, thanks for being here. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Shannon. I want to quickly play this clip. This is Justice Samuel Alito, perhaps the most revisited soundbite from the day. He was asking the plaintiff's attorney here a very simple question, how they would define a man or a woman so that the justice can rule on this case. Listen. What is that definition for equal protection purposes? What does, what does it mean to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman? Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I think that the underlying enactment, whatever it was, the policy, the law, the would have to, we'd have to have an understanding of how the state or the government was just understanding that term to figure out whether or not someone was excluded. We do not have a definition for the court. We do not have a definition. If the plaintiffs in this case can't define what the term sex means, how can they argue that someone's being discriminated against on that basis? That's certainly what's undercutting their argument. And many of us who are observers, Catholic vote included, have, have been absolutely shocked that the Supreme Court now has to come in and tell us what reality is. I mean, this, this, this court case is actually one of the most consequential in recent memory because this is pure reality testing. Whether or not we're going to affirm mental illness as a, at the Supreme Court level or define basic biological realities. You know, I'm, I'm from the state of Wyoming and we talk a lot about putting lipstick on a pig. Well, you put a lipstick on a man, you give him any pill possible. It's not possible to change your chromosomal reality. And I think they're going to have a difficult time defending that. Well, and part of the problem here is the justices themselves. They couldn't answer that same question when they were pressed. This is Katonji Brown-Jackson during her confirmation hearing. Listen to this. Can you provide a definition for the word woman? Can I provide a definition? Yeah. I can't. Knowing Marsha Blackburn knew this case was headed her way. So if the court can't answer the question in their own minds, how can they possibly rule on the case? Shannon, this is, this is a larger question about language and its access point to reality. Language is meant to communicate realities. And if we can't define basic categorical terms like men and women, there is simply no way forward in this country. So I expect to see large numbers of justices ruling on this very positively. We saw that Kavanaugh was very sympathetic to the government's argument. We saw that, we saw that Alito had that enormously important question that was played out across social media. So I do think they're going to come out on top on this, but it is certainly shocking that we are at a point where basic language terms can no longer reveal reality for a significant portion of the population. Well, and frankly, to listen to it for three, three and a half hours to see that our high court is spending time on this issue, but an important one for sure in terms of the implication and the tentacles, the issue certainly, you know, has been the center of political and cultural debate for a number of years now. But the Williams Institute shows that teenage transgender athletes, they really are only making up about a 1% of about 8 million student athletes nationwide. So the fact that the court is spending so much time on this, your reaction? Well, I think this is a larger question about what we're doing for, what sort of signals we're sending for young girls. My mother was the first generation to play under Title IX basketball for Black Hills State. I played at the University of Notre Dame. Sports is enormously important for young girls. It builds confidence. It builds character. It helps you in competition. And what we're telling them in effect is that the opinions of a small minority of men who think that they are women is more important than their own reality, right? Each side is suffering under this, and it's amazing that we're only talking for three hours about a small 1% who are reportedly suffering under these designations rather than the millions of girls who are finding scholarships denied and the opportunities that sports creates thrown out the window. Yeah, make no mistake. I mean, the opportunity denied is certainly a factor here, too. A Washington State student here in front of the Supreme Court, she was there Tuesday. She refused to play against a biological male. Listen to her. For probably about a year now, February 6th, I was 15 years old with an 18-year-old man in my locker room, as well as going against my girls' basketball team. Yes. And that's kind of the trigger for you being involved? That got me started on this journey, and I ever since have been very passionate about just putting my foot down and saying this isn't going to happen anymore to me and to other girls. The opportunity denied. These women, like your mom, you know, spent decades fighting for the right to play soccer, lacrosse, basketball, have equal funding in sports. What does it do? What does a debate like this do to those advances? It undermines them completely, and that's what Kavanaugh was getting at, I think, in his portion of the oral arguments. But I'll say this, that these young women who are standing down to stand up are real heroes, Shannon. I mean, what they are doing in terms of sacrificing their careers in high school that they might not ever get back in college in order to stand for truth, that's something special. And I think we don't pay enough attention to the psychological damage that men being in women's locker rooms, it's not just the safety of the sport, which, you know, is the injuries are enormous, the consequences can be potentially life-altering, as we've seen with concussion cases, but there's a pornographic element to being forced to shower with a man. Under circumstances, should we be allowing this? Yeah. Well, the court expected to rule sometime this summer. We know you'll be watching it incredibly closely. Kelsey Reinhart, president and CEO of Catholic Vote, appreciate your time. Thank you.

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