The Supreme Court will hear arguments on a case involving state bans on transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson has more.

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case concerning state laws that prohibit transgender students from joining girls' and women's sports teams. This case follows a recent Supreme Court decision allowing states to ban puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender children. The legal focus will be on whether such state bans violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, and whether this protection extends to transgender status.

Additionally, the case will examine the intersection with Title IX, a federal law that bars gender-based discrimination in educational sports. Lower courts have generally blocked these state bans, often citing insufficient evidence that allowing transgender girls to compete disadvantages girls assigned female at birth. The Supreme Court's decision is expected to clarify the extent of states' authority and the reach of federal protections for transgender individuals in school sports.

Supreme Court takes up case on bans for trans athletes

All right, welcome back. Breaking at this hour, the Supreme Court plans to take up a new case about which school sports teams transgender students can join. This comes less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled that states can outlaw puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender children. Let's bring in CBS News contributor Jessica Levinson. She understands the contours about all of this and it is significant, Jessica, as it usually is for a Supreme Court case because of the cultural implications. Help us understand what's at stake. The cultural implications, exactly as you said, in the legal implications. So this is a case that will be a hot button, high profile case, again, not just because people have such strong feelings on both sides, but because potentially it could rewrite part of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Law. Exactly as you said, Errol, we're talking about state laws that say that transgender kids cannot participate and girls cannot participate in sports in their schools, in certain sports. Now, the question is whether or not that violates the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, which does in many cases prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. The question is, does the basis of sex include transgender status? And then also we're looking at Title IX, which is a federal law barring discrimination on the basis of gender when it comes to sports in schools. So this is going to be, again, a really important case because it will tell us what states have the power to do, and a really important case because it will tell us about the reach of the Equal Protection Clause when it comes to transgender individuals. And what's interesting about that is the argument can be in some places that allowing transgender girls to participate actually negatively impacts girls born as female because they are disadvantaged. I mean, there's kind of two ways to look at the same topic. That's exactly right, and lower courts have been looking at that, and we have rulings at this point from lower courts prohibiting these state laws from going into effect, generally saying, not always, but generally saying that the evidence that it does hurt girls born as girls, that that evidence is thin. When the Supreme Court takes this question up, I think they're going to have to address that big question of who is being discriminated here. So important. Jessica Levinson, great to have you on this topic. Thanks so much.

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