A Trump-appointed federal judge temporarily blocked an Idaho law Monday barring transgender women from competing in school sports and required testing for athletes whose gender was in doubt.
Idaho Chief Judge David Nye ruled that the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which provoked the injunction allowing transgender athletes to compete in the gender category of their choosing this fall, was “likely to succeed.” The judge also ruled that the state had no provided sufficient reasons for the law to be necessary.
“The Court recognizes that this decision is likely to be controversial,” Nye wrote Monday. “While the citizens of Idaho are likely to either vehemently oppose, or fervently support, the Act, the Constitution must always prevail.”
Nye will now continue to decide whether the state’s “Fairness in Women’s Sport Act” violates the 14th Amendment under its equal protection and due process clauses as the plaintiffs claim. Nye will also consider whether testing for an athlete’s gender which, under the law can be challenged by any person, violates 4th Amendment protections from unlawful searches.
The lawsuit brought against the legislation with the support from the ACLU comes from three unnamed plaintiffs and a track athlete and freshman at Boise State University, Lindsay Hecox, who is transgender.
The law was passed by the state’s Republican legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Brad Little in March. According to Politico, it is the only law barring transgender student athletes from participating in sports with the gender they identify with.
