Anti-LGBTQ+ group asks Supreme Court to fast-track national blanket trans sports ban

An emergency appeal is raising concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court could soon rush a decision on transgender athletes’ participation in sports through its shadow docket.

This month, the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom filed an emergency application for an injunction, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in K.M.K. v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. The application seeks relief while an appeal proceeds or, alternatively, expedited Supreme Court review.

That could mean a complicated issue driving political debate in Democratic- and Republican-controlled states could be addressed before the underlying case has undergone a full trial and appeals process. The shadow docket lets the justices consider emergency requests outside their regular briefing and oral-argument schedule. Such requests can produce consequential rulings while factual and legal disputes remain unresolved.

Related: Supreme Court trans sports ruling sparks red state crackdown and blue state resistance

The ADF, once an employer of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, has challenged LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections in cases involving everything from designing websites for same-sex couples to access to bathrooms and locker rooms.

In its latest filing, the ADF wants the high court to intervene in a case involving a female wrestler who alleges a transgender opponent sexually assaulted her during a match. Though court documents identify her only as K.M.K., Kallie Keeler and her mother spoke to Fox News about the allegation. She told the outlet she found out her opponent was trans only after the match was already over.

Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Hal Frampton told OutKick that the organization’s broader goal is a ruling that Title IX requires a female sports category that excludes transgender girls and women.

Related: States can ban transgender women and girls from sports, according to U.S. Supreme Court

“The hope would be then that that would force all 23 of those states to enact policies protecting women and girls, protecting the female category, and simply getting back to the common sense notion that women’s sports are for women,” he said.

The application cites Keeler’s alleged assault as part of its argument for immediate intervention. Its claims concern Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, as well as her mother’s asserted constitutional right to direct her upbringing.

But Ian Millhiser of Vox reported that prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges after investigating Keeler’s allegation.

“As a memo from the local prosecutor’s office points out, if these allegations are true then K.M.K. is the victim of a very serious crime — rape in the third degree,” he wrote. “The prosecutor’s office, however, decided not to prosecute because it concluded that it could not prove that a sex crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt.”

According to Millhiser’s account of the memo, prosecutors interviewed the referee, who did not observe anything unusual during the match and, after reviewing video, could not identify unusual hand placement. Millhiser also reported that the school district had reviewed the footage and interviewed both competitors, but its investigation remained ongoing.

The court’s emergency docket also delivered a temporary reprieve for transgender prisoners Wednesday. In Trump v. Kingdom, the justices rejected the administration’s request to lift a lower court order blocking restrictions on gender-affirming care in federal prisons. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the request.