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Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges to Bans on Athletic Participation by Transgender Students
The Supreme Court today granted certiorari in two federal court cases involving transgender youth challenging bans on their participation in local school and college sports.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status. Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do–to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” said Joshua Block, Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Earlier this year, efforts to enact a national ban failed in the U.S. Congress. Since 2020, 27 states have banned transgender youth from playing school sports. Many of these bans allow for invasive forms of sex testing that put all female student athletes at risk and open the door for any school official or adult to question and harass young women.
In Florida, a 15-year-old junior varsity volleyball player was the subject of a police investigation after an anonymous accusation, prompting local officials to draft a 500-page report investigating her medical history, body weight, and anatomy. In Utah, a teenage basketball player was accused of being transgender by a member of the state board of education, leading to threats of violence against her and her family, and a teenager in Maine faced a similar attack from a state senator. In May, President Donald Trump bullied a 16-year-old transgender girl for participating in a high school track meet.
Many women athletes have spoken out against bullying and discrimination against transgender student athletes. This includes Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe, Dawn Staley, Sue Bird, and Brianna Turner, as well as leading organizations fighting for gender equality in athletics including the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association, and the National Women’s Law Center.
The two cases the Supreme Court has agreed to hear include:
- Little v. Hecox, a challenge brought by one transgender and one cisgender student athlete against Idaho’s 2020 ban on transgender athletes and requirements for sex testing
- West Virginia v. B.P.J., a challenge brought by a teenage transgender girl against West Virginia’s 2021 ban on transgender athletic participation
The two cases charge the bans with violating the rights of transgender and cisgender female students under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. In addition, West Virginia v. B.P.J. argues that the bans violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs. Federal courts have blocked enforcement of these bans in both lawsuits.
These cases are part of the ACLU’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Supreme Court Docket.
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Largest Nurses Strike in NYC History as Nearly 15,000 Healthcare Workers Hit the Picket Line
"No nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits, or less dignity for doing lifesaving work," said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Jan 12, 2026
Thousands of nurses are hitting the picket lines in what will be the largest nurses strike in the history of New York City.
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on Monday announced that nearly 15,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian are going on strike after "greedy hospital management at these wealthy private hospitals have given frontline nurses no other choice."
The NYSNA posted a long list of sticking points on contract negotiations, including "safe staffing for our patients, protections from workplace violence, and healthcare for frontline nurses."
NYSNA president Nancy Hagans said that any patients in need of care at these hospitals should enter them, emphasizing that "going into the hospital to get the care you need is not crossing our strike line." She also encouraged patients to join the picket line with the nurses after receiving care.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke out in solidarity with the striking nurses, while also emphasizing the importance of "ensuring New Yorkers have the care they need... especially during flu season."
"No New Yorker should have to fear losing access to healthcare," Mamdani wrote in a social media post. "And no nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits, or less dignity for doing lifesaving work. Our nurses have kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also expressed support for the striking nurses, while denouncing "NewYork-Presbyterian, Montefiore, and Mount Sinai hospitals for being willing to spend millions on replacement nurses rather than bargain for a fair contract."
The NYSNA also got a boost from 1199SEIU, which is the largest union of healthcare workers in New York.
"At this time of unprecedented cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs by Republican leaders in Washington, DC healthcare workers should not bear the brunt of funding shortfalls," said 1199SEIU president Yvonne Armstrong. "More than ever, we need stability in our healthcare system, which means investing in the type of good healthcare jobs which are fundamental to the wellbeing of caregivers and the communities they serve."
Armstrong also called on the hospitals to "bargain in good faith with NYSNA, refrain from committing unfair labor practices, and sign fair contracts that honor nurses’ contributions."
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Son of Last Iranian Shah Asks Trump to Back Military Coup as Protests Rage
"What is clear is that President Trump does not now have Congress' authorization for the use of military force in Iran," said one expert.
Jan 12, 2026
The son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who brutally ruled Iran for decades with backing from the United States and other Western powers, has urged US President Donald Trump to intervene militarily and support the overthrow of the Iranian government amid an escalating protest movement that has faced violent repression.
"The people of Iran have responded and reacted positively to a promise of intervention," Reza Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since the 1979 revolution and ouster of his father, said in a Fox News appearance on Sunday when asked if he wants US forces to "take out" Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
"We need to cut the snake’s head off for good so it can no longer be a threat to Iranian interests, to American interests, to regional interests," said Pahlavi, who has been accused of opportunistically coopting the protest movement, which began late last month over the collapse of the nation's currency. "The only solution is to make sure this regime goes down for good and the Iranian people can liberate themselves.”
Hours after Pahlavi's comments, Trump told reporters that the US military is looking at "some very strong options" to intervene in Iran, a country whose nuclear facilities the Trump administration bombed last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Trump, fresh off his unlawful and deadly attack on Venezuela, is set to receive a briefing on Iran from top administration officials on Tuesday. According to the newspaper, the meeting "will be a discussion about the next steps, which could include boosting anti-government sources online, deploying secretive cyber weapons against Iranian military and civilian sites, placing more sanctions on the regime, and military strikes."
"One option under discussion is the possibility of the US sending terminals of Starlink, a satellite-based internet service owned by Elon Musk, into Iran for the first time during the Trump administration, officials said, which could help protesters skirt a recent internet shutdown in the country," the Journal reported. "Trump said he would speak with Musk about sending Starlink satellite-internet terminals into Iran."
"Reports that the United States and Israel may be considering military strikes in Iran are deeply concerning."
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Monday that Iranian leaders are willing to negotiate with the US.
"We are not looking for war, but we are prepared for war—even more prepared than the previous war," said Araghchi. "We are also ready for negotiations, but negotiations that are fair, with equal rights and mutual respect."
Expert observers expressed horror at the Iranian government's treatment of demonstrators while also warning against military intervention by outside powers, including the United States.
Matt Duss, executive vice president of the US-based Center for International Policy, said in a statement Monday that "indications that widespread demonstrations by brave Iranians are being met with a brutal, deadly crackdown by the Iranian government are horrific."
"This violence should be unequivocally condemned," said Duss. "It is important for other countries and multilateral bodies to vocally stand for the right of Iranians to protest. It is also critical that no country attempts to intervene inside Iran in a manner that could further endanger or undermine the protestors."
"Reports that the United States and Israel may be considering military strikes in Iran are deeply concerning," Duss continued. "It is difficult to know what the impact of such attacks would be on the plight of the Iranian protestors, and even less clear what the follow-on consequences would be for the Iranian people and security in the region. Israeli and US strikes against Iranian government targets last year were broadly opposed by Iran’s people and diaspora across almost the entire political spectrum."
"What is clear is that President Trump does not now have Congress' authorization for the use of military force in Iran," he added. "Any US strikes would be illegal under both US and international law. The administration should instead focus its efforts on working multilaterally to press Iran’s government to end the killing and other abuse of its own citizens."
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Fed Chair Powell Says He Won't Bow to Trump 'Intimidation' as DOJ Launches Criminal Probe
"This unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure," said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Jan 12, 2026
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell revealed in a defiant statement late Sunday that the US Department of Justice is threatening him with criminal charges, a step the central bank chief condemned as "intimidation" for not bowing to President Donald Trump's demands on interest rate policy.
"I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one—certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve—is above the law," Powell said in a video statement. "But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure."
Powell said that the Justice Department, which Trump has repeatedly wielded against his political opponents, served the Federal Reserve on Friday with grand jury subpoenas related to the central bank chair's congressional testimony on Fed office building renovations.
But Powell, who was first nominated to his role by Trump in 2017, said accusations that he misled lawmakers about the scope of the renovations were a "pretext" obscuring the real reason the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal indictment.
"The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president," said Powell. "This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation."
Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: https://t.co/5dfrkByGyX pic.twitter.com/O4ecNaYaGH
— Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) January 12, 2026
The New York Times reported Sunday that the investigation into Powell was approved late last year by Trump loyalist Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host now serving as US attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump claimed he didn't "know anything about" the Powell investigation, but added, "He's certainly not very good at the Fed, and he's not very good at building buildings."
Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May, has repeatedly defied Trump in public, dismissing the president's threat to remove him from the helm of the central bank as unlawful and, at one point, fact-checking Trump to his face about the estimated cost of Fed renovations.
Powell has also publicly blamed Trump's tariff policies for driving up inflation.
"It's really tariffs that are causing the most of the inflation overshoot," Powell said last month, following the central bank's December 10 meeting. The Fed cut interest rates three times last year, bringing them down by a total of 75 basis points.
But Trump has pushed for much more aggressive rate cuts and attacked Powell—who does not have sole authority over interest rate decisions—as a "moron" and "truly one of my worst appointments."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, applauded Powell's "bold defense of the rule of law" and said that Fed policy "should not be subject to intimidation and bullying by Trump loyalist prosecutors."
"The Department of Justice should serve the rule of law, not the vindictive instincts of an authoritarian president," said Gilbert. "And it should never misuse its criminal enforcement powers to pursue pretextual prosecutions against the president’s political opponents or those who show a modicum of independence.”
"He is abusing the law like a wannabe dictator so the Fed serves him and his billionaire friends."
Democratic members of Congress also rose to Powell's defense.
"Threatening criminal action against a Fed chair because he refuses to do the president's bidding on interest rates undermines the rule of law, which is the very foundation for American prosperity," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote on social media.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) added that "no one should lose their sense of outrage about what is happening to our country."
"This is an effort to create an autocratic state. It's that plain," said Murphy. "Trump is threatening to imprison the chairman of Federal Reserve simply because he won't enact the rate policy Trump wants."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a frequent critic of Powell and Fed rate policy during his tenure, wrote late Sunday that Trump "wants to nominate a new Fed chair AND push Powell off the board for good to complete his corrupt takeover of our central bank."
Powell's term as a Fed governor runs through January 2028. Trump's top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, is widely seen as the president's likely pick to replace Powell as chair of the central bank.
Warren called on the Senate to "not move ANY Trump Fed nominee" amid the DOJ investigation into Powell.
"He is abusing the law like a wannabe dictator so the Fed serves him and his billionaire friends," Warren said of Trump.
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