MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday sent the case of a transgender athlete who wants to compete in the women’s division at weightlifting events back to a lower court to determine whether USA Powerlifting has a “legitimate business purpose” for excluding her.
The state's highest court ruled that the group's policy that bars JayCee Cooper from competing in its women's division is “facially discriminatory” under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which protects transgender individuals against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
But the justices noted that the law carves out a “legitimate business purpose defense,” and said there is “genuine dispute of material fact” on whether “seeking to ensure competitive fairness in an athletic competition” meets that test. So it sent the case back to the original trial court for further proceedings.
USA Powerlifting rejected Cooper’s application in 2018 to compete in its women’s division. Cooper sued in 2021, and the trial court sided with her.
But the Minnesota Court of Appeals sent the case back to the trial court, saying there were “genuine issues of fact” about whether USA Powerlifting excluded Cooper because of her transgender identity and whether the organization had a “legitimate business reason” for doing so. Cooper then took the case to the state’s highest court.
Cooper’s attorney, Christy Hall, said during oral arguments in December that USA Powerlifting’s policy discriminates against all transgender women, regardless of their individual physical capabilities.
But an attorney for USA Powerlifting, Ansis Viksnins, argued then that female transgender powerlifters have a significant advantage in a sport that relies inherently on strength. He told reporters then that performance differences provide a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” to exclude transgender females from its women’s division.
Transgender people’s participation in sports has been a contentious issue across the country. According to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit that says it works to advance equality and opportunity for all, 29 states bar transgender women and girls from competing in at least some women’s or girls competitions, though some of those bans have been blocked by court orders.
The Minnesota Human Rights Act contains broad protections against discrimination, including on the basis of sex defined broadly, and was updated in 2023 to specifically include gender identity.
In an indication of the intense interest in the Minnesota case, numerous athletes and organizations on both sides filed friend-of-the-court briefs, including former tennis champion Martina Navratilova, who was part of a group of 83 female athletes backing USA Powerlifting’s position.
Since the legal arguments were based largely on how the courts should interpret Minnesota law, the decision doesn't set a binding precedent for other states. But courts elsewhere faced with similar issues could choose to draw on the legal reasoning behind it.