West Virginia asks SCOTUS to allow enforcement of transgender sports ban

The State of West Virginia has petitioned the Supreme Court to allow its statewide law requiring students to participate in school sports programs aligned with their biological sex after an appeals court halted its implementation in February.

West Virginia GOP Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office filed an application with the High Court on Thursday, a spokesman said, according to The Hill. The state enacted the ban in 2021

"The decision was the West Virginia Legislature’s to make. The end of this litigation will confirm that it made a valid one," the filing reads. "In the meantime, the Court should set aside the Fourth Circuit’s unreasoned injunction and allow the State’s validly enacted law to go back into effect."

"The Fourth Circuit’s unreasoned injunction silently adopting this thinking also does real damage on the ground," it continued. "It spurns West Virginia voters who deserve to have their laws enforced when their elected representatives respond to an identified problem."

"States should continue to have the right to legislate—even in politically controversial areas— without unexplained reversals from on high," Morrisey's office asserted.

The Supreme Court has yet to weight in on the increasingly divisive issue as numerous state governments have moved to bar transgender athletes from competing in programs in line with their chosen gender identity should it differ from their sex assigned at birth.

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