Connecticut
Court upholds state’s transgender athlete policy
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld a lower court judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities were speculative.
“All four Plaintiffs regularly competed at state track championships as high school athletes, where Plaintiffs had the opportunity to compete for state titles in different events,” the decision said. “And, on numerous occasions, Plaintiffs were indeed “champions,” finishing first in various events, even sometimes when competing against (transgender athletes).”
The judges added, “Plaintiffs simply have not been deprived of a ‘chance to be champions.’”
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Council argued its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.
The American Civil Liberties Union defended the two transgender athletes at the center of the lawsuit — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood.
“Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion” Joshua Block, a lawyer for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. “This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”
Transgender athletes’ ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate. At least 12 Republican-led states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage.
Transgender rights advocates counter such laws aren’t just about sports, but another way to demean and attack transgender youth.
Christiana Kiefer, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the four Connecticut cisgender athletes, said she and other alliance attorneys are considering how to respond, including possibly asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review Friday’s decision.
“Our clients, like all female athletes across the country, deserve fair competition,” Kiefer said in a phone interview. “And that means fair and equal quality of competition, and that just does not happen when you’re forced to compete against biological males in their sports.”
Kiefer added, “The vast majority of the American public recognizes that in order to have fair sports, we have to protect the female category, and I think you’re seeing that trend increasingly with states across the country passing laws to protect women’s sports. ... This is certainly not the end of the road in the fight for fairness for female athletes.”
The plaintiffs sought injunctions to bar enforcement of the state policy on transgender athletes and to remove records set by transgender athletes from the books, as well as money damages.
In arguments before a federal judge in Connecticut in February 2021, Roger Brooks, another lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Title IX guarantees girls “equal quality” of competition, which he said is denied by having to race people with what he described as inherent physiological advantages.
Brooks said the transgender sprinters improperly won 15 championship races between 2017 and 2020 and cost cisgender girls the opportunity to advance to other races 85 times.
Miller and Yearwood, the transgender sprinters from Bloomfield and Cromwell, respectively, frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.
The plaintiffs competed directly against them, almost always losing to Miller and usually finishing behind Yearwood. One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell of Canton High School, finished third in the 2019 state championship in the girls 55-meter indoor track competition behind Miller and Yearwood.
All the athletes have since graduated from high school.
Iowa
Man who joined mom at Capitol riot guilty on 12 counts
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge in Washington has found an Iowa man guilty of 12 charges including assaulting and resisting officers after he and his mother joined in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Judge Thomas Hogan ruled last Thursday afternoon that Salvador Sandoval of Ankeny, Iowa, was guilty of the six felony and six misdemeanor counts he faced, according to KCCI-TV in Des Moines.
The conviction came a day after Sandoval’s mother, Deborah Sandoval of Des Moines, pleaded guilty to entering a restricted building just before she was set to go on trial. Because of the agreement, prosecutors dropped other charges.
During Salvador Sandoval’s trial last Wednesday, prosecutors said he pushed two officers and tried to take riot shields from two other officers.
Both Sandovals will be sentenced later.
Missouri
Man found guilty of murder in Illinois cop’s death
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A judge found a Missouri man guilty of first-degree murder Thursday in the death of an Illinois officer killed while trying to stop the man from fleeing police.
Caleb Campbell of Florissant, Missouri, was convicted in a bench trial for the Aug. 4, 2021, death of Brooklyn Officer Brian Pierce Jr.
Campbell’s actions created a situation where “anything or anyone” in his path “was going to be obliterated,” but Campbell “simply did not care,” Madison County Associate Judge Neil Schroeder said in announcing his verdict.
Pierce, 24, died while part of a team of officers trying to stop Campbell when the Missouri man allegedly drove over spike strips and struck Pierce on the McKinley Bridge in Venice, Illinois, connecting the two states.
Campbell was taken into custody days after the incident and claimed he had been carjacked in a Brooklyn nightclub parking lot. His car was later found abandoned on the Missouri side of the bridge.
Campbell had a handgun in his car and an active Missouri warrant for his arrest when he fled an attempted traffic stop, prosecutors said.
Campbell “knew if he was stopped … he was going to jail,” Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Maricle said in her closing argument.
Campbell acted as his own attorney and argued that Pierce’s actions were a contributing factor in his own death. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 23.
