Judge Kato Crews, who was nominated by President Biden to the federal district court in Colorado, refused to grant a preliminary injunction to a college and several women volleyball players who tried to force a transgender woman off a competing women’s college volleyball team. The Tenth Circuit promptly affirmed the order. The November 2024 decision was in Slusser v Mountain West Conference.
What happened in this case?
The Mountain West Conference (MWC) is a collegiate athletic conference in the western part of the US. Many of its members sponsor women’s volleyball teams. In 2022, MWC unanimously approved a transgender participation policy. The policy requires compliance with NCAA standards, including that trans women must be taking testosterone suppression and other approved hormone therapy. Teams that refuse to play against a team with a transgender woman forfeit their matches.
Since sometime in 2022, San Jose State University (SJSU) has reportedly had a transgender woman on its volleyball team. 2024 news coverage brought more attention to the matter, and some teams did forfeit matches with SJSU. Only two weeks before the MWC women’s volleyball tournament was set to start in late November, a number of students plus the University of Utah filed a federal suit against MWC and then a motion for a preliminary injunction, trying to force the transgender woman off the SJSU volleyball team and reverse the previous forfeitures. Judge Crews held a hearing on the case less than a week before the tournament was set to begin.
How did Judge Crews rule and why is it important?
Several days before the tournament, Judge Crews issued a comprehensive 28-page opinion that rejected the motion for a preliminary injunction, He explained that civil rights law, notably Title IX, actually supportts the participation of trans women in women’s volleyball. Such participation, he went on, was also consistent with the equal protection clause and the First Amendment. Judge Crews was highly critical of what he called the “delay” that was “not reasonable” in going to court on the issue, explaining that the “rush to litigate” these “complex issues now” put a “heavy lift on the MWC at the eleventh hour.” The plaintiffs promptly took the case to the Tenth Circuit, which affirmed the decision. The tournament continued, and with full participation by all players, SJSU lost the tournament championship game.
Judge Crews’ opinion was obviously important to the SJSU team and the transgender woman who has played on it. The ruling should also have a positive effect on the rights of transgender athletes to participate in sports across the country. In addition, the decision serves as a reminder of the importance of confirming fair-minded judges to our federal courts.