BOISE, Idaho — It took six years for Idaho's first-in-the-nation law banning transgender women from women's sports to make it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
House Bill 500 (HB-500) Co-Sponsor and Representative, Barbara Ehardt says, "This is a problem that is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, and if we don't stop it, we're going to hit a point where our girls are going to have no place to go."
Rep. Ehardt says that after a lot of research and work, she decided to sponsor HB 500 back in 2020.
Hear what the Attorney General and Rep. Ehardt have to say about the recent SCOTUS hearing and the future of HB-500
As written, the bill, also known as the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act," limits who can participate in girls' or women's sports to people whose biological sex was designated as female at birth.
The law's future is now in the U.S. Supreme Court's hands in the case of Little vs. Hecox.
Representative Barbara Ehardt, a longtime women's basketball coach, says there's a big difference between male and female athletes.
"That male [on the team] impacts not just the whole team and the other team, but everybody against whom they play," said Rep. Ehardt. "So, we're talking literally hundreds of young ladies are impacted by the presence of one male."
Lindsey Hecox is a transgender woman and a Boise State Student who challenged Idaho's HB-500 after she was barred from joining the university's track and cross-country teams.
With the help of the A.C.L.U., she sued the State of Idaho over HB-500, and Idaho's Attorney General Raúl Labrador took the fight all the way to the high court.
"These nine justices decide what the final ruling is," said Attorney General Labrador. "We had lost at the Federal District Court, lost in the 9th Circuit, which was not surprising, but these are the people who will make the ultimate decision. They ask very tough questions, and you have to prepare for that."
Hecox has since backed away from the lawsuit for personal reasons, asking the court to drop it, but Idaho AG Labrador says it's too late for that. Idaho News 6 Senior Reporter Don Nelson asked Labrador why.
"I think this person knew that it was going to have their name on it from the beginning," replied Labrador.
Ehardt was inside the Supreme Court building and listened closely to what the justices were saying about HB-500 and another case out of West Virginia.
"Some of the key points, I believe it was Alito and Roberts who, kind of in frustration, said 'if we don't define sex, we don't know what sex is, how should we know if there's discrimination?' It was so simple, yes, how do we know if there's discrimination?"
I reached out to the ACLU of Idaho for comment about last week's proceedings in Washington. Idaho News 6 will continue to provide you with updates.
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