November 27, 2024
Willkie secured a high profile win for collegiate athletic conference Mountain West Conference in a suit brought by members of San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team and other Mountain West teams that played against SJSU. The suit sought to (i) prohibit a transgender woman on the SJSU team from competing in the MWC’s Championship, which begins Nov. 27 and (ii) alter the MWC’s policy under which a MWC member school’s refusal to play SJSU because it has a transgender team member is deemed a forfeit (i.e. the refusing team receives a loss and SJSU receives a win).
The complaint and emergency injunction request, filed on November 13 by 11 current and former members of MWC women’s volleyball teams, including SJSU, Utah State University, Boise State University, University of Wyoming, and University of Nevada-Reno, as well as an SJSU associate volleyball coach, alleged that the conference and SJSU violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX by allowing an alleged SJSU transgender volleyball player to play for a women’s sports team, which they claimed would cause irreparable harm. Plaintiffs sought an order preliminarily (i) blocking the player at issue from playing in any remaining matches this season and (ii) requiring the MWC to convert any forfeits assessed under its Transgender Participation Policy (TPP) to “no contests” (i.e., the games would be deemed not completed), which would potentially change which 6 teams would reach the Championship and the tournament seeding.
Hon. S. Kato Crews, United States District Court Judge for the District of Colorado in Denver, denied both the request to ban the player and to alter the TPP, stating that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate irreparable harm, notably by waiting until two weeks before the Nov. 27-30 tournament to seek the injunction. The court noted the player in question has played for SJSU since 2022, and that Mountain West’s policy on transgender athletes has been in place since 2022. The court also noted that certain SJSU opponents began receiving forfeits for declining to play SJSU in late September 2024, raising no complaints until the lawsuit was filed.
Judge Crews also noted that the plaintiffs failed to make a strong showing on the merits of their Title IX, Equal Protection and First Amendment claims, as Title IX protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The order noted that according to legal precedent, "’sex’ under Title IX's prohibitions includes discrimination based on an individual's trans status or sexual orientation."
On November 25, the plaintiffs sought an emergency appeal of the district court’s denial of the motion for preliminary injunction. On November 26, the Tenth Circuit denied plaintiffs’ request.
The Willkie team was led by partners Wesley R. Powell, Matt D. Basil and Jared Bartie, and included counsel Emerson Girardeau, and associates Autumn Adams-Jack, Jacey Norris, Emma Rosen, Chloe Smeltzer and William Weber.
