W.Va. AG McCuskey to Newsmax: State's Trans Athlete Case Key to Title IX Protections

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said the state's fight over its 2021 Save Women's Sports Act has become a national test case, arguing on Newsmax that a ruling against West Virginia in West Virginia v. B.P.J. would reach far beyond a single student-athlete dispute and threaten sex-based teams across the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Jan. 13, 2026, after agreeing last year to review a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said the law, as applied to transgender student Becky Pepper-Jackson, violated Title IX and revived an equal protection claim.

In an interview with "National Report" on Friday, McCuskey tied the case to the International Olympic Committee's newly announced policy limiting eligibility in female Olympic events to biological females, calling the move validation for West Virginia's position.

"I'm obviously very excited that the IOC has joined the rest of the world in understanding what is truly a commonsense idea, which is that women's sports matter, and the reason that they matter is because there are biological differences between men and women," McCuskey said.

He added, "I think one of the things that's interesting to note about our case at the Supreme Court is if we were to lose — which we're not going to — a ruling against us, if the ACLU wins, it would render every women's sports team in the entire country illegal."

McCuskey claimed that the case is part of the legacy of Title IX, saying girls and women's sports have helped create "the leadership capabilities and the skills" needed "to become CEOs at companies in this country and reach [the] highest levels of American politics."

At argument, Chief Justice John Roberts pressed West Virginia's lawyer on whether the court's 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County necessarily controlled the sports dispute.

"In terms of Bostock, I understand that to say that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is discrimination on the basis of sex," Roberts said. "But the question here is whether or not a sex-based classification is necessarily a transgender classification."

Asked about those remarks, McCuskey said Roberts already understood the distinction West Virginia was trying to draw.

"First and most importantly, the West Virginia law does not ban transgender students from playing sports," he said. "It bans boys from playing sports against girls."

He continued, "What we're talking about here is really the difference between gender-based classifications and sex-based classifications, which couldn't be more different."

McCuskey also argued that employment law and athletics should be treated differently, saying, "In Bostock, what we're talking about is a very, very different situation where the biological differences don't matter in employment. Right?"

"But they do matter on the athletic field — where height, strength, and speed are the most important factors in sports."

The Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J., but several court watchers said after arguments that the justices' conservative majority appeared inclined to uphold West Virginia's law and similar state restrictions.

Twenty-nine states have enacted laws or policies barring transgender girls from competing on girls school sports teams, making the ruling likely to shape school athletics nationwide.

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