Attorney General William Barr said an Idaho law that prohibits transgender women from playing in women’s sports leagues is permissible, The Hill reports.
In a statement of interest filed Friday, Barr calls transgender women “biological males” and says that allowing them to compete in women's sport leagues is “fundamentally unfair to female athletes.”
Barr wrote that Idaho is allowed to “to recognize the physiological differences between the biological sexes in athletics,” under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Gov. Brad Little approved Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in March. The law is slated to be enacted on July 1.
“Because of these differences, the Fairness Act’s limiting of certain athletic teams to biological females provides equal protection,” he wrote. “This limitation is based on the same exact interest that allows the creation of sex-specific athletic teams in the first place — namely, the goal of ensuring that biological females have equal athletic opportunities. Single-sex athletics is rooted in the reality of biological differences between the sexes and should stay rooted in objective biological fact.”
The law applies to teams that are associated with or sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities and cites “different athletic capabilities” between men and women.
Civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims that Idaho's law is unconstitutional, citing violations of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Fourth Amendment's protections against invasions of privacy.
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