The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over state bans regarding transgender athletes. CBS News' Katrina Kaufman has more.

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases challenging state laws that prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls and women's sports. The justices appeared inclined to allow states to set their own policies, with debates centering on constitutional protections, fairness, and scientific uncertainty regarding athletic advantage. 

The Court may ultimately sidestep a broad ruling, as one plaintiff seeks to dismiss her case and another suggests returning the issue to lower courts. In addition, the Supreme Court announced decisions in three separate cases concerning election law, warrantless police entry, and double jeopardy protections.

Supreme Court justices question transgender athlete bans

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a pair of cases involving transgender athletes challenging state laws that ban them from participating in girls sports. The plaintiffs in the case are two transgender students, one in high school, the other in college who live in states where they can't play in women's sports. CBS News legal reporter Katrina Kaufman joins us live. Katrina, what were the arguments presented in court and are we getting any early indication about how the court is leaning in this case? You know, it really seemed from listening to arguments yesterday, like the majority of the justices were leaning towards upholding these state bans, which would prevent transgender athletes from participating in women and girls sports in these 27 states where those are currently in place. But there was a lot of debate. There are some difficult issues here. At the core, they were trying to decide whether these laws violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution, and in one of them, whether it violates Title IX as well. They were talking about discrimination, issues of fairness, and then also some of the uncertainty of the science here. When does someone actually have an advantage in sports? Let's take a listen to what Justice Kavanaugh had to say. Given that half the states are allowing it, allowing transgender girls and women to participate, why would we, at this point, just the role of this court, jump in and try to constitutionalize a rule for the whole country while there's still, as you say, uncertainty and debate? And a key issue here will be the scope of the ruling that they ultimately end up releasing. Will this be nationwide? It seemed really unlikely. From listening to the arguments, it seemed more likely this would end up being something that states would be able to decide themselves. So, for instance, if the justices determine things that way, these 27 states where they have bans, they may stay in place. The other states could make their own decisions. There also is an opportunity here, though, for the justices to sidestep this very thorny issue altogether. In one of the cases from Idaho, the plaintiff, Lindsay Hecox, actually wants her case dismissed. She said she doesn't want the attention from being part of this case. She wants to finish college, and she's not going to participate in sports in Idaho anymore, in women's sports, that is. So she says her case is moot, and the Supreme Court is supposed to make a decision about that after the arguments. In the other case out of West Virginia, the plaintiff is also saying that because there's so much uncertainty here, maybe the court should just send it back down to the lower courts for more fact-finding. So we don't know for sure if we will really get an ultimate decision here or if this might get sent back down, potentially one of the cases dismissed as well. And in the meantime, the Supreme Court put out their decision on three separate cases today. What do we know about those rulings? So yes, three different cases. One is Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections. And this is from Congressman Michael Bost, whether he has the right to sue, known as standing. And this is challenging an Illinois law that allows mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted even if they arrive as many as 14 days later. What the Supreme Court said here, very simply, is that as a candidate for office, he does have standing because this is a law that affects the counting of votes in his election. So he has a personal stake here. Now, another case that was decided, it's Case v. Montana. This was a Fourth Amendment case. And what happened here is someone's ex-girlfriend had called 911. She was worried that he might commit suicide, that there might be harm that he was going to commit to himself. Police officers came. They tried yelling through an open window. They thought they saw potentially an empty gun holster, something that looked like a suicide note, ended up entering. He came out of a closet. They thought they saw a weapon. They shot. And then, ultimately, he was actually convicted of assault. But he says that they were supposed to have a warrant to enter his home. Now, what the court held today is that the police had an objectively reasonable basis for believing that he had potentially intended to take his own life and may have shot himself. So he did have the right to enter – they did have the right to enter that home without a warrant. And then the last case is a little bit more legally sticky, but it's Barrett v. United States. It related to the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment. And it was whether someone who committed a single act that violated two parts of a statute could be convicted twice, essentially. And what the court held was that Congress did not authorize convictions under both. All right. Katrina Kaufman, thank you so much for walking us through all that. Appreciate your time.

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Breakdown