The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday it will decide whether states may bar transgender girls and women from competing on female athletic teams in public schools and colleges, granting review in two cases that could set a nationwide standard for scholastic sports. The justices agreed to hear West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, challenges to laws enacted in 2021 and 2020 that restrict team participation to the sex listed on a student’s birth certificate. Lower courts blocked both statutes, allowing 15-year-old runner Becky Pepper-Jackson in West Virginia and 24-year-old Boise State athlete Lindsay Hecox in Idaho to continue competing while litigation proceeds. Idaho and West Virginia contend their measures safeguard competitive fairness and are consistent with Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education. The athletes argue the bans violate both Title IX and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by excluding them solely because they are transgender. The cases will be argued in the term that begins in October 2025, with a ruling expected by June 2026. More than two dozen states—roughly 27—have adopted similar restrictions, creating a patchwork of rules that school districts, athletic associations and the National Collegiate Athletic Association must navigate. The high-court intervention arrives two weeks after the conservative majority upheld Tennessee’s prohibition on gender-affirming medical care for minors, underscoring the court’s expanding role in disputes over transgender rights. West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey and Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador welcomed the review, while civil-rights groups representing the athletes said they will urge the court to affirm the lower-court rulings that labeled the bans discriminatory.