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Danbury High School sophomore Alanna Smith speaks during a news conference at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, Feb, 12, 2020. Smith, the daughter of former Major League pitcher Lee Smith, is among three girls suing to block a state policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
Pat Eaton-Robb/Associated Press
Representatives from both sides of the lawsuit involving the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) policy of allowing transgender athletes to compete in high school athletics delivered their arguments in a federal appeals court Thursday morning in New York.
The federal lawsuit was initially filed in February 2020 and was dismissed by United States District Court Judge Robert Chatigny in April 2021.
Seventeen months later, the case is now in U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston listened to arguments Thursday and will make a decision to either uphold Chatigny's decision or send the case back to district court.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative legal organization, is representing the four cisgender former Connecticut high school track and field athletes who are fighting to overturn the CIAC’s policy on transgender athletes participation in girls' sports.
They argued that allowing transgender athletes to compete alongside cisgender women creates an unequal playing field and violates Title IX,. The plaintiffs (Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Ashley Nicoletti and Alanna Smith) are also seeking to change the state track and field records and championship-winning results set by two transgender athletes, former Bloomfield High student Terry Miller of Bloomfield and former Cromwell High student Andraya Yearwood. They argue those results affected their collegiate recruiting opportunities and place of finish in races.
"Trophy shelves exist with old trophies in high schools because we all recognize that the past and history and records matter," Roger Brooks, an attorney with the ADF, argued in court Thursday. " ... The one thing we all agree on is that the public record matters. The question is who's entitled to that women's championship?
"The CIAC rules as we pled, and is true of the Olympics and others, require a retroactive correction of records if a record is found to have been achieved in violation of the CIAC rules. ... These records we contend were achieved not in violation of the rule but in violation of the law, which is an even worse violation."
All six athletes have graduated from high school since the lawsuit was filed and all four plaintiffs received scholarships to run track in college. Smith, a Danbury High graduate, will begin competing for the University of Tennessee this year and Mitchell, a Canton High graduate, currently competes at William & Mary.
Miller and Yearwood are not named in the suit, but attorney Joshua Block from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represented them at the hearing. The Connecticut Association of Schools — the organization that oversees the CIAC — and the school boards connected to the plaintiffs are named in the suit and represented by Hartford attorney Peter Murphy.
The ACLU has argued that since the athletes have graduated from high school, the court can’t overturn the CIAC policy. It also argues that since Miller and Yearwood were not breaking any rules while competing, the court can’t change the records or make their results void.
"The second major problem with plaintiffs' complaint is that even if the Court accepted their false legal premise, the allegations in the complaint don't come anywhere close to showing an actual denial of equal athletic opportunity," said Block, an ACLU staff attorney.
"(The) plaintiffs' complete athletic records, which are incorporated into the complaint by reference, show that they defeated Andraya and Terry on multiple occasions, and amassed an impressive collection of first-place trophies in the process. The complaint is filled with hypotheticals about a dystopia where cisgender girls disappear from the victory podium, but a complaint requires allegations of facts, not allegations of hypotheticals."
Last April, Chatigny dismissed the case, ruling that the lawsuit was “moot” since Miller and Yearwood have graduated from high school and the plaintiffs could not identify any additional transgender athletes currently competing within the CIAC.
The ADF has appealed Chatigny’s decision with hopes of sending the case back to the district court for reconsideration.
"These four individual plaintiffs had great success in high school. They won several championships. They competed well in high school ... including beating the intervenors," Murphy said. "… Your Honor, we're not aware of if the intervening defendants’ records are stricken, as the District Court noted, everyone will know Miss Mitchell did not win that race.
"There's no procedure, despite what was said, there's no procedure available to name her the winner of a race if one of the intervening defendants is eliminated. She did not cross the line first."
maggie.vanoni@hearstmediact.com @maggie_vanoni