West Virginia to ask SCOTUS to take up lower court ruling banning state's transgenders in sports law

West Virginia GOP Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Wednesday the state will ask the Supreme Court to take up its "Save Women's Sports Act" after it was blocked by an appeals court earlier this month

"We will be filing over the next month and we want to make sure we time our filing to maximize the chance the case is going to be heard and most importantly that we will win," Morrisey said during a press conference.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the West Virginia law that attempts to ban boys who identify as girls from playing on girls' sports teams discriminated against a teenage athlete.

According to the court, the law discriminated against 13-year-old Becky Pepper Jackson, who has been taking puberty-blocking medication and publicly identified as a girl since elementary school.

If the law is enforced, Pepper Jackson would be kicked off the middle school track team due to identifying as transgender. 

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jackson, after GOP Gov. Jim Justice signed the transgender ban into law in 2021. 

"This is one of the most important cases that my office has handled over the past 12 years," Morrisey said during the press conference. "We are vigorously defending the law and that law is reasonable."