On December 22, 2025, the National Women’s Law Center, alongside 19 other organizations dedicated to advancing opportunities for women and girls, filed an amicus brief before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Female Athletes United v. Ellison, arguing in support of the Minnesota State High School League’s (MSHSL) inclusive policy that ensures transgender students can play on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. NWLC rejects the radical legal theories advanced by Female Athletes United (FAU), as rights of transgender students are not in tension with increased opportunity and equal treatment of cisgender women and girls. In our brief, NWLC explains that Title IX’s broad sweep targets the very sex stereotypes about athletic ability that FAU now seeks to peddle against transgender students, and that Title IX’s regulatory framework to evaluate equal athletic opportunity does not require denying transgender girls the chance to play alongside cisgender girls. Further, NWLC’s brief outlines the serious danger that exclusionary policies pose for all women and girls by exacerbating inappropriate scrutiny of their bodies and even sex testing if they do not fit narrow, sexist expectations of how women and girls should look or play. NWLC was joined in this brief by:
American Federation of TeachersClearinghouse on Women’s IssuesFeminist Majority FoundationGLSENJewish Community ActionMinnesota Abortion Action CommitteeNational Association of School PsychologistsNational Association of Women LawyersNational Council of Jewish WomenNational Education AssociationNational Organization for Women FoundationOutNebraskaPFLAG, Inc.PROMOPublic CounselRed River Women’s ClinicThe Trevor ProjectWomen’s Foundation of MinnesotaWomen’s Law Project
Read the amicus brief here.