https://www.courthousenews.com/minnesota-supreme-court-finds-usa-powerlifting-discriminated-with-ban-on-transgender-lifters/Minnesota Supreme Court finds USA Powerlifting discriminated with ban on transgender lifters
While finding in favor of the athlete, the court left open USAPL's claim that it has a legitimate business interest in the ban.
(CN) – The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling Wednesday, sided with a transgender athlete who claimed that USA Powerlifting violated the state’s Human Rights Act by banning her from competing in its women’s division.
JayCee Cooper sued USA Powerlifting, a national organizer of weight lifting competitions also known as USAPL, in 2021.
Cooper filed the lawsuit in response to a December 2018 email, in which the USAPL’s committee chair told her, “Male-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage.”
Cooper appealed to the state’s high court after an appeals court partially overturned a state court’s ruling in her favor.
Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who wrote the unanimous 35-page opinion, said there is “no genuine dispute that USA Powerlifting discriminated against Cooper because of her transgender status. Although USA Powerlifting lacked a formal, written transgender participation policy at the time of its initial communication with Cooper, the record establishes — and the parties do not dispute — that USA Powerlifting’s policy at the time of the decision was to categorically exclude transgender women from competing in the women’s division.”
