Trump says Supreme Court justices should ‘lose credibility’ for backing trans athlete cases
WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump criticized Supreme Court justices following a hearing on transgender athlete cases.
Speaking during a White House press conference on Tuesday, January 20, the president reportedly told reporters that justices who appeared to favor the transgender athlete plaintiffs should "lose a lot of credibility."
He said, “Big Supreme Court case. I mean, I can't believe it. Some of the justices were fighting hard for men to be able to play in women's sports. A couple of them, I can't imagine it.”
Trump claims US ban on men in women’s sports
“But I think anybody that rules that way should lose a lot of credibility. But we banned men from playing in women's sports,” Trump asserted, adding, “All you have to do is look at the records, look at weightlifting records, look at swimming records, look at track and field. This is not fair. It's very demeaning to women.”
Earlier, the POTUS also criticized the Supreme Court justices and the administration of former President Joe Biden over their stance on transgender athletes participating in women’s and girls’ sports.
He stated, “The past administration, they had no clue or they were really bad, but they basically had no clue. But they did have a concept. I mean, they're still trying to sell the idea of men playing in women's sports.” Trump further alleged that “some of those justices were fighting for” transgender athletes.
“They were fighting for them. But you saw that just the other day in the Supreme Court, men playing in women's sport doesn't work,” he added.
Supreme Court weighs state bans on trans athletes
The two cases, Little v Hecox (Idaho) and West Virginia v BPJ (West Virginia), under consideration focus on whether states have the authority to pass laws prohibiting biological males from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.
Questions and remarks from Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor during last week’s hearing reportedly suggested sympathy toward the transgender athlete plaintiffs.
Brown Jackson told Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst that she was “struggling to understand how you can say that this law doesn't classify on the basis of transgender status.”
“The law expressly aims to ensure that transgender women can't play on women's sports teams. So why is that not a classification on the basis of transgender status?” she asked Hurst.
Jackson also questioned Solicitor General Michael Williams about West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act.
Justice questions impact of trans athlete bans
During the hearing, Sonia Sotomayor said, “You have the overarching classification, everybody has to play on the team that is the same as their sex at birth, but then you have a gender-identity definition that is operating within that, meaning a distinction, meaning that for cisgender girls, they can play consistent with their gender identity. For transgender girls, they can't.”
Sotomayor also referenced the estimated number of transgender people in the United States.
“There are 2.8 million transgender people in the United States. That’s an awfully big figure. What makes a subclass meaningful to you? Is it one percent? Five percent? Thirty percent? Fifteen percent? The numbers don’t talk about human beings,” she argued.
Meanwhile, a ruling from the Supreme Court is expected in June.
