West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB3293, banning transgender girls and women from school sports teams

On April 28, 2021, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 3293, the "Save Women's Sports Act," into law, barring transgender girls and women from competing on public school and collegiate sports teams designated for female athletes. The law required such teams to be designated by "biological sex," which it defined as sex "based solely on the individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth," covering elementary, secondary, and state institutions of higher education. The bill cleared the Republican-controlled legislature in the weeks before the signing. At a news conference before signing, Justice said he was "absolutely all in" on the measure, calling it "the right thing to do" to prevent what he described as a risk of a "superior athlete" displacing girls from competition.

West Virginia was one of several Republican-led states to enact transgender-athlete sports restrictions in 2021, following South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The law was challenged in federal court as B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education on behalf of transgender student Becky Pepper-Jackson.

Updates

2021-07-21 — Federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law [3]

U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin granted a preliminary injunction, finding the law's exclusion of the transgender plaintiff from girls' sports likely discriminated against her on the basis of transgender status and blocking West Virginia from enforcing HB 3293 against her while the case proceeded.

2023-01-05 — District court reversed course, granted summary judgment upholding the law [4]

Judge Goodwin granted summary judgment for the state on cross-motions, holding HB 3293's sex-based eligibility rule was substantially related to providing equal athletic opportunities for girls, upholding the law's constitutionality and dissolving the earlier injunction.

2024-04-16 — Fourth Circuit reversed, ruled the law violated Title IX [5]

A Fourth Circuit panel reversed the district court's summary judgment on the Title IX claim, holding West Virginia's exclusion of the plaintiff from girls' sports teams violated Title IX, and remanded her equal protection claim for trial.

2026-06-30 — Supreme Court upheld the law, ruling 6-3 in West Virginia v. B.P.J. [6]

The Supreme Court reversed the Fourth Circuit, ruling 6-3 that state bans on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports do not violate the Equal Protection Clause, upholding West Virginia's law. This ruling is recorded separately as its own entry (federal-narrowing-civil-rights-protections-66c6e49a); noted here only as the resolution of this law's own litigation history.