Transgender Rights

Justice Sotomayor read her dissent aloud from the bench on June 30, 2026 — a step justices reserve for cases where they want the disagreement on the public record, not just in print. Her summary of what the majority had just done: “the facts do not matter, even though the consequences are serious.” She was describing a ruling that let states ban transgender girls from school sports teams without ever resolving the central factual dispute the case turned on. ...

A Court Divided: LGBTQ Rights and Minority Protections in the Balance The Supreme Court does not move in a straight line. Over the past six years, it has handed down decisions that protected LGBTQ workers from job discrimination, then carved out a constitutional escape hatch for businesses that do not want to serve same-sex couples. It has eliminated the federal right to abortion, while a Justice in the majority hinted that marriage equality might be next. Now a new wave of cases is approaching, and the question is no longer hypothetical: what kind of court is this, and who is it for? ...