A conservative law firm wants a federal court to allow Idaho to enforce its transgender athletics ban.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a notice of appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, weeks after Idaho’s U.S. District Court put the transgender athletics ban on hold.
ADF represents two Idaho State University student-athletes, Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, who support the first-of-its-kind transgender ban. Dubbed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act by its sponsors, the law would prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.
“I’m disappointed that the district court put Idaho’s law on hold,” Marshall said Wednesday, “because I’ve benefited personally from sports and I want other young women to enjoy the same opportunities and benefits that I have.”
After emotional legislative hearings and nearly party-line floor votes, Gov. Brad Little signed the ban into law in March. Weeks later, opponents filed their own appeal seeking to overturn the law.
The opponents achieved at least a short-term victory on Aug. 17, when Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye issued an injunction blocking the enforcement of the law. And he also tipped his hand, saying opponents “are likely to succeed in establishing the act is unconstitutional as currently written.”
Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office, and several former attorneys general, have said the law is fraught with legal problems.
More coverage of Wednesday’s filing from Nathan Brown of the Idaho Falls Post Register.
