CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATIONS

Several state legislatures have enacted laws that prohibit transgender girls, i.e., individuals born as males who subsequently “identify” as females,[1] from participating in school-sponsored sports activities that are intended for girls. The United States Supreme Court is currently considering whether those laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.[2] They do not.

The Equal Protection Clause reads as follows:

No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

U.S. Const., Amendment XIV, §1.

The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, to overrule what was left of the Dred Scott Case, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) after the Thirteenth Amendment had overruled the pro-slavery aspect of that Case in 1865.[3] In Dred Scott, the Supreme Court had said that black people were not included in the Declaration’s statement that “all men are created equal.” See Dred Scott, 60 U.S. at 410. To overcome that, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment basically dictates that the states must now regard every “person” as “equal” under the law, regardless of the characteristics into which he, or she, had been “created” or born.

As the Supreme Court intimated long ago, the United States Constitution must be construed by its “language,” ”taken in connexion (sic) with [its] purposes . . . .” Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1, 189 (1824). By definition, “transgender” girls, and “transgender” boys were not “born” that way.[4] They changed their gender “identity” after birth. Having a purpose historically tied to a person’s characteristics at birth, such as race, the Equal Protection Clause simply does not apply to personal transitions that occur after birth, such as a transition from one sex to another.

/s/ Dan D. Rhea

[1] See “Transgender.” Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/transgender. Accessed 21 Jan. 2026.

[2] See Sup.Ct. docket for Little v. Hecox, no. 24-38; and West Virginia v. B.P.J., no. 24-43, available at https://www.supremecourt.gov.

[3] See The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36, 73 (1872).

[4] See footnote 1, supra.