Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025: Prohibits biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports in federally funded school athletic programs.
Prohibit biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports in federally funded school athletic programs.
Occurrences
Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 – introduced by Senator Tuberville
Evidence
The bill summary says it generally prohibits school athletic programs from allowing individuals whose biological sex at birth was male to participate in programs for women or girls. Congress.gov lists the latest action as a failed cloture vote on 2025-03-03 and still shows the bill status as Introduced.
Justice said he would keep fighting for female athletes and the page states that he joined Senator Tuberville’s Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act of 2025.
The Supreme Court reversed lower-court rulings and held that Title IX and Equal Protection allow schools to use biological sex to determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports. The opinion also expressly said it was not deciding the separate question whether schools may allow biological males who identify as female to participate on girls’ and women’s teams.
EO 14201 sets U.S. policy to rescind funds from educational programs that deny fair athletic opportunities to women and girls, directs the Education Secretary to clarify that women’s sports are reserved for women, and prioritizes Title IX enforcement against institutions requiring female students to compete with or against males.
The NCAA policy effective February 6, 2025 applies to NCAA gender-separated competition and says a student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team, with no waivers available.
The Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 9 by 51 yeas to 45 nays, short of the required three-fifths threshold. The measure concerned recognizing sex based on reproductive biology and genetics at birth for Title IX athletics compliance. Senator Justice voted yea.
Assessments
The promised nationwide prohibition for federally funded school athletic programs has not been fully enacted. Justice supported and voted for the matching Senate bill, but it failed cloture and remains introduced. Executive Order 14201, NCAA policy changes, and the Supreme Court ruling substantially advanced sex-based eligibility rules and federal enforcement during Justice's Senate term, but they do not amount to a complete statutory federal ban across all covered school athletic programs, and much of the realized policy came from actors other than Justice.
The promised federal policy has not been enacted. Justice joined and advocated for S.9, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which matches the promise by seeking to bar federally funded school athletic programs from allowing individuals whose biological sex at birth was male to participate in women’s or girls’ programs. But the bill remains introduced/stalled after a failed Senate cloture vote on March 3, 2025, and there is no evidence that the promised prohibition became federal law or binding federal policy. Because Justice made a serious legislative/advocacy effort but the outcome was not delivered, this is a failed promise with an effort badge.