The News: On behalf of three high school students and a coalition of Wisconsin parents, WILL filed an amicus brief in West Virginia v. B.P.J, a case currently before the Supreme Court of the United States. WILL argues that laws limiting girls’ sports to biological girls do not violate Title IX. We also explain that the decision will impact bathrooms and locker rooms, and we urge the Court to directly overrule lower court decisions (including from the Seventh Circuit) that require schools to give boys access to girls’ facilities. Our brief provides several real-life examples of the harms that occur when boys can access girls’ spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms.
The Quote: WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, stated, “For far too long, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana have been burdened by the Seventh Circuit’s deeply flawed rulings that schools must allow transgender-identifying boys to access girls’ facilities. We hope the Supreme Court’s decision will not only protect girls’ sports but also clarify that those decisions are no longer good law—and never have been.”
WILL’s Legal Argument: West Virginia v. B.P.J. will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court later this term. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that West Virginia’s law limiting girls’ sports to biological girls violated Title IX. Our brief asks the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit. Title IX explicitly permits sex-separated sports to protect safety and fairness in girls’ sports.
We also urge the Court to take the opportunity to correct an entrenched circuit split on whether schools must allow transgender students to use whatever facilities they identify with. The Seventh Circuit, in a case called Whitaker, applied similar reasoning as the Fourth Circuit to hold that bathroom use must be based on gender identity, rather than biological sex. We provide real-world experiences from our clients to show that allowing boys to access girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms has and will continue to harm young girls.
Who We Represent: WILL represents three Wisconsin students who have been forced to share a locker room with boys, and the Empowered Community Coalition, an association of 105 Elkhorn parents who oppose a lawsuit against their school district seeking to open girls’ facilities to boys. They share their stories with the Court to illustrate the harms of eliminating sex-separated facilities.
Read More:
- Amicus Brief, September 2025
Luke Berg
Deputy Counsel