SCOTUS allows transgender individual to stay on women's sports team pending litigation on state ban

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a 12-year-old transgender individual may remain on the school's girl's sports team while a lawsuit against a West Virginia ban on such practices moves through the courts.

Becky Pepper-Jackson filed suit challenging the state's Save Women's Sports Act, securing a ruling from the appeals courts allowing continued participation, the Associated Press reported. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reimposed an initial injunction in February against the law's enforcement.

The state had asked the high court in March to allow the enforcement of the ban while the suit progresses, which it declined to do. The Supreme Court did not explain its decision, though Justice Samuel Alito, who dissented, suggested that it ought to have done so.

"I would grant the State’s application. Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation," he wrote.

West Virginia is one of 20 states with bans on transgender individuals participating on sports teams that correspond to their gender identities.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.