Jim Justice defends his transgender sports ban as Supreme Court hearing looms

HEDGESVILLE, W.V. – EXCLUSIVE: As governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice in 2021 signed the Save Women’s Sports Act – prohibiting transgender girls from competing in women’s sports. Now that he represennts the state in the U.S. Senate, his law faces Supreme Court scrutiny next week with national implications.

Justice spoke Saturday to Fox News Digital – after he coached the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team to a win over Hedgesville — about the high stakes of the case, and why banning states from keeping biological males out of female scholastic sports would unfairly disadvantage young women.

A transgender girl from the Bridgeport area named in court documents as “B. P. J.” sued to overturn it and be able to play on girls’ sports teams, and the case has made its way up the chain to the nation’s highest court.

A trial court upheld the law in 2023, but it was overturned on appeal in April 2024 and the Supreme Court agreed in July to hear the case, scheduling arguments for Tuesday.

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“Why in the world don’t we step up and stand behind all the young girls and all the women who are trying to participate in athletics?” Justice told Fox News Digital courtside at the Spartans’ match near Berkeley Springs.

“It is unbelievable what they’ve done, and I am so proud of them — And to absolutely just walk away, turn our back and say, ‘Oh, well, it’s OK for us to [let] boys participate against their girls” —  I am off-the-chart absolutely standing with our women.”

Citing his own experience coaching girls from Greenbrier East in Lewisburg, Justice said he sees every day how hard they work and maintained “they absolutely don’t deserve to be disadvantaged.”

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“This court case is hugely important,” he said, accompanied by his celebrity canine companion Babydog. “At the end of the day, if we can’t stand up for our girls; stand up for our women; I don’t know what in the world is wrong with us.”

Justice was one of several lawmakers who filed an amicus brief in support of West Virginia and Attorney General JB McCuskey as he and Justice’s successor, Gov. Patrick Morrisey, bring the case before the bench.

The brief signaled Justice’s assertion that Congress must be the one to offer any expansion of Title IX – the 1972 civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination – beyond biological sex to include gender identity.

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“I think absolutely that Congress should be the one to expand it, but beyond that, I don’t know why we’d even consider it,” Justice said.

“You should see how hard our girls work all the time to perfect what they’re doing, to absolutely have a dream of going to college and playing ball. My daughter played college basketball. I’ve been there,” Justice said.

“We’ve seen a situation where a man basically is competing against our girls or our women and absolutely prevails. And then we see the tragedy of how… tough that is on our girls and women,” he said.

Always quick to tout the virtues of his home state, Justice also spoke about how important it is to see Mountaineers leading the charge on the transgender sports issue.

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“West Virginia is so good in so many ways,” the famed Greenbrier proprietor said, adding that the arguments McCuskey’s team is preparing to make on Tuesday fit right into the state’s modus operandi:

“I’ve said it over and over, we are bound with logic, common sense, goodness, good neighbors, people that are appreciative and loving — It is absolutely unbelievable how we stepped up during COVID, all the different things we did, we led the nation over and over.”

“Now the nation is awakening, the world is awakening just how great West Virginia truly is. But our people are the real deal. That’s all there is to it,” he said.

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On the other side of the case, B.P.J. is seeking to play on her high school sports teams with girls.

This past year, B.P.J. qualified for the West Virginia girls high school state track meet, finishing third in the discus-throw and eighth in the shot-put in the Class AAA division.

She has identified as female since third grade and has been taking puberty-blocking medication. The plaintiffs have complained of harassment and intimidation over their lawsuit.

The Supreme Court will formally decide on both West Virginia’s law and an Idaho policy. The Justice Department supports the laws and will be allotted time during oral arguments.

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The Save Women’s Sports Act was spearheaded in the West Virginia legislature by GOP Dels. Evan Worrell of Barboursville, Wayne Clark of Charles Town and Jonathan Pinson of Ravenswood.

Fox News Digital’s Olivia Palombo and Fox News’ Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.