Case challenging transgender athletes policy to be heard again
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City will rehear the case involving the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s transgender policy with a full panel of judges after a panel of three judges upheld the CIAC’S policy in December.
Attorneys for cisgender girls who filed a lawsuit, had appealed to the court to change the records and results of track races in which transgender female runners had participated. The court ruled that claims that the cisgender girls were denied opportunities were moot and unfounded, citing that on numerous occasions the cisgender girls had beaten the transgender girls.
Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm representing Chelsea Mitchell of Canton, Selina Soule of Glastonbury, and Alanna Smith and Ashley Nicoletti of Danbury, said she was pleasantly surprised that the court decided to revisit the case.
“It was a little bit of a surprise to all of us because neither of the parties requested it,” Kiefer said Tuesday. “The court, of its own accord, looked at the prior decision and said, ‘We need to revisit this.’
“We think it’s a great sign. We think the panel really got it wrong and did not correctly understand that missed opportunities and wrong records do give our clients standing to make their full case in court.”
The CIAC had no comment on the development.
The ACLU represented transgender female athletes Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood.
“We look forward to defending fairness and equality in sports on behalf of Andraya and Terry,” Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. “As the initial ruling found, cisgender girls lose nothing from the participation
of transgender girls and Connecticut’s policy simply recognizes the right of all student athletes to equal participation and protection under Title IX.
“We’ll gladly make that case again and are hopeful the full court will reach the same conclusion.”
There has been no date set for the hearing.
The athletes initially
sued the CIAC and local schools over the organization’s policy allowing transgender female athletes to compete against cisgender females.
In April 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny dismissed the lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs on procedural grounds. The lawsuit was filed in federal court and sought to halt transgender female athletes Miller and Yearwood from participating in girls high school sports in
Connecticut.
All the athletes involved in the case have graduated high school.
Miller, Mitchell and Yearwood competed against each other in indoor and outdoor track from 2018-2020 and Mitchell and Miller had a number of high-stakes races against each other.
Miller, of Bloomfield, won State Open outdoor track titles in the 200 meters in 2018 and 2019 and in the 100 meters in 2018. Mitchell, of Canton,
won the 2019 State Open 100-meter title after Miller false-started and was disqualified. In 2019, Miller beat Mitchell for the Class S outdoor titles in the 100 and 200. In 2020, at the State Open indoor championships, Mitchell beat Miller (who finished third) for the 55-meter title after Miller beat Mitchell for the Class S 55-meter championship the previous week.