Christian schools, female athletes ask court to protect fairness in women’s sports

WHO: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys

WHAT: Available to media following hearing in The State of Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Education

WHEN: Immediately following hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, November 3

WHERE: Hearing is taking place at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (800 Market Street, Suite 130, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902). To schedule an interview, contact ADF Media Relations Manager AnnMarie Pariseau at (480) 417-3975.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the Association of Christian Schools International and three female athletes in Arkansas will be available for media interviews Wednesday following a hearing in which they will ask a federal district court to allow ACSI and the female athletes to intervene in a lawsuit that challenges the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of federal law that allows males to compete on female athletic teams.

Twenty state attorneys general, led by the state of Tennessee, are challenging a guidance document issued by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that interprets Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits “discrimination on the basis of sex,” to bar discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Among other things, this would require that schools subject to Title IX allow males who identify as female to participate on female athletic teams and use female-designated showers and locker rooms.

“Anna, Cate, and Amelia—like every other American girl involved in sports—deserve the opportunity to compete on a safe and fair playing field against other female athletes,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs, who will argue before the court in favor of the intervention motion. “The Biden administration’s radical push to redefine sex in federal law threatens to erase women’s sports and eliminate the opportunities for women that Title IX was intended to protect. We’re asking the court to allow our clients’ voices to be heard at this critical moment in the protection of women’s sports.”

ACSI’s schools have approximately 500,000 students throughout the country. The ACSI schools compete against public schools that receive federal financial assistance and are required to adhere to the new federal mandate. This places Christian schools and their female athletes at a disadvantage because the public schools they compete against in athletic events would be required by the Biden administration to permit males to compete on female sports teams.

The three female athletes ADF attorneys represent are Arkansas public school students Anna Scarborough, Cate Ford, and Amelia Ford.

“The female athletes and ACSI seek to provide equal opportunities for women in athletics by maintaining sex-separated sports teams as guaranteed by Title IX,” the motion to intervene states. “The female athletes will show how allowing physiologically bigger, stronger, and faster biological males to compete in women’s sports personally harms their chance at fair competition and eliminates their ‘chance to be champions.’”

Andrew Fox, one of nearly 3,500 attorneys allied with ADF, is serving as local counsel in the case for ACSI and the female athletes.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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