Round 4: No asterisk!

It has been a very long time with this case in the court system, appeal… appeal… until we win! That is the philosophy the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Court revives lawsuit over Connecticut rule allowing trans girls to compete in school sports
Connecticut Public Radio
By Larry Neumeister / Associated Press
December 15, 2023

Opponents of Connecticut’s policy letting transgender girls compete in girls high school sports will get a second chance to challenge it in court, an appeals court ruled Friday, which revived the case without weighing in on its merits.

Both sides called it a win. The American Civil Liberties Union said it welcomes a chance to defend the rights of the two transgender high school track runners it represents. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the four cisgender athletes who brought the lawsuit, also said it looks forward to seeking a ruling on the case's merits.

In a rare full meeting of all active judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, judges found the cisgender runners have standing to sue and have described injuries that might qualify for monetary damages. The runners also seek to alter certain athletic records, alleging they were deprived of honors and opportunities at elite track-and-field events because they say “male athletes” were permitted to compete against them.

The case had been dismissed by a Connecticut judge in 2021, and that decision was affirmed by three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit a year ago.

[…]

In a statement Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut cast the ruling as a victory for the two runners they represent — Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller — noting that the 2nd Circuit wrote that the transgender runners have an “ongoing interest in litigating against any alteration of their public athletic records.”

No asterisk! We do not want any asterisks next to their wins!

And he pointed out that no one was able to cite any precedent in which a sports governing body retroactively stripped an athlete of accomplishments when the athlete complied with all existing rules and did not cheat or take an illegal substance.

“It is not the business of the federal courts to grant such relief,” Chin said.

And then we have Fox News;

Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith and Ashley Nicoletti, former runners who filed a lawsuit against the state’s high school sports governing body, had their case heard before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, a year after the case was previously dismissed because the claims were found to be speculative.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the former athletes, announced in a press release Friday that the lawsuit will now proceed in federal district court after all 15 members of the panel agreed "unanimously" to reinstate the case.

[…]

"The en banc 2nd Circuit was right to allow these brave women to make their case under Title IX and set the record straight. This is imperative not only for the women who have been deprived of medals, potential scholarships, and other athletic opportunities, but for all female athletes across the country."

What the ADF is doing is trying to put Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to rewrite the rules.

 

The Hartford Courant wrote,

The narrowly focused decision Friday by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit orders the suit to proceed without resolving the central question raised by the four young women: Whether a policy requiring them to compete against transgender athletes violates Title IX of U.S. civil rights law, which requires schools receiving federal money to provide equal athletic opportunity to women.

Should the women prevail in the reinstated suit, it could lead to a ban against transgender athletic competition.

[...]

 

After concluding that Chatigny did, in fact, have jurisdiction, the appellate court concluded that the four high school girls had argued persuasively that they had “a concrete, particularized, and actual injury’ that could be “redressable by monetary damages and an injunction ordering Defendants to alter certain athletic records.”

So this court case here in Connecticut could have big implications nation wide!