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HEDGESVILLE, W.V. – EXCLUSIVE: As governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice in 2021 signed the Save Girls’s Sports activities Act – prohibiting transgender ladies from competing in girls’s sports activities. Now that he represents the state within the U.S. Senate, his regulation faces Supreme Courtroom scrutiny subsequent week with nationwide implications.
Justice spoke Saturday to Fox Information Digital – after he coached the Greenbrier East Excessive Faculty ladies’ basketball crew to a win over Hedgesville – in regards to the excessive stakes of the case, and why banning states from retaining organic males out of feminine scholastic sports activities would unfairly drawback younger girls.
A transgender lady from the Bridgeport space named in courtroom paperwork as “B. P. J.” sued to overturn it and have the ability to play on ladies’ sports activities groups, and the case has made its manner up the chain to the nation’s highest courtroom.
A trial courtroom upheld the regulation in 2023, nevertheless it was overturned on attraction in April 2024 and the Supreme Courtroom agreed in July to listen to the case, scheduling arguments for Tuesday.
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVOLVED IN SCOTUS TRANS ATHLETE CASE RESPONDS AS 130 DEMS BACK MALES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS
Sen. Jim Justice, left, and Babydog, proper, coach a Lewisburg, W.V. girls’s basketball crew in Berkeley County, W.V. on January 10, 2026. (Charlie Creitz/Fox Information Digital)
“Why on this planet do not we step up and stand behind all of the younger ladies and all the ladies who’re attempting to take part in athletics?” Justice instructed Fox Information Digital courtside on the Spartans’ match close to Berkeley Springs.
“It’s unbelievable what they’ve accomplished, and I’m so happy with them — And to completely simply stroll away, flip our again and say, ‘Oh, nicely, it is OK for us to [let] boys take part towards their ladies” — I’m off-the-chart completely standing with our girls.”
Citing his personal expertise teaching ladies from Greenbrier East in Lewisburg, Justice mentioned he sees on daily basis how laborious they work and maintained “they completely don’t need to be deprived.”
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“This courtroom case is massively vital,” he mentioned, accompanied by his celeb canine companion Babydog. “On the finish of the day, if we will not rise up for our ladies; rise up for our girls; I do not know what on this planet is improper with us.”
Justice was one in every of a number of lawmakers who filed an amicus transient in help of West Virginia and Lawyer Common JB McCuskey as he and Justice’s successor, Gov. Patrick Morrisey, convey the case earlier than the bench.
The transient signaled Justice’s assertion that Congress have to be the one to supply any enlargement of Title IX – the 1972 civil rights regulation prohibiting sex-based discrimination – past organic intercourse to incorporate gender id.
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“I believe completely that Congress ought to be the one to increase it, however past that, I do not know why we’d even think about it,” Justice mentioned.
“You need to see how laborious our ladies work on a regular basis to good what they’re doing, to completely have a dream of going to school and taking part in ball. My daughter performed faculty basketball. I have been there,” Justice mentioned.
“We have seen a state of affairs the place a person mainly is competing towards our ladies or our girls and completely prevails. After which we see the tragedy of how… robust that’s on our women and girls,” he mentioned.
At all times fast to tout the virtues of his dwelling state, Justice additionally spoke about how vital it’s to see Mountaineers main the cost on the transgender sports activities problem.
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“West Virginia is so good in so some ways,” the famed Greenbrier proprietor mentioned, including that the arguments McCuskey’s crew is getting ready to make on Tuesday match proper into the state’s modus operandi:
“I’ve mentioned it again and again, we’re sure with logic, frequent sense, goodness, good neighbors, folks which can be appreciative and loving — It’s completely unbelievable how we stepped up throughout COVID, all of the various things we did, we led the nation again and again.”
“Now the nation is awakening, the world is awakening simply how nice West Virginia actually is. However our individuals are the actual deal. That is all there may be to it,” he mentioned.
130 DEMOCRAT CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES URGE SCOTUS TO SIDE WITH TRANS ATHLETE IN TITLE IX LEGAL BATTLE
On the opposite aspect of the case, B.P.J. is looking for to play on her highschool sports activities groups with ladies.
This previous 12 months, B.P.J. certified for the West Virginia ladies highschool state monitor meet, ending third within the discus-throw and eighth within the shot-put within the Class AAA division.
She has recognized as feminine since third grade and has been taking puberty-blocking medicine. The plaintiffs have complained of harassment and intimidation over their lawsuit.
The Supreme Courtroom will formally determine on each West Virginia’s regulation and an Idaho coverage. The Justice Division helps the legal guidelines and can be allotted time throughout oral arguments.
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Donald Trump, left; Jim Justice, proper (Saul Loeb/Getty)
The Save Girls’s Sports activities Act was spearheaded within the West Virginia legislature by GOP Dels. Evan Worrell of Barboursville, Wayne Clark of Charles City and Jonathan Pinson of Ravenswood.
Fox Information Digital’s Olivia Palombo and Fox Information’ Shannon Bream and Invoice Mears contributed to this report.
