State laws limiting participation in school sports teams to athletes of the same biological sex are constitutional and violate neither the Equal Protection Clause nor Title IX of the 1964 federal civil rights act, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The high court consolidated two cases, West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, producing a single ruling (“West Virginia v. B.P.J.”) applying to both. As a result, some judges concurred with the majority on one issue, but dissented on another. Thus, West Virginia and Idaho state laws separating sports teams based on biological sex were validated by a 6-3 vote regarding the Equal Protection Clause – as well as by a unanimous 9-0 concurrence, including even the most liberal justices, with respect to Title IX. “Title IX allows schools to provide separate women’s and men’s sports teams defined by biological sex, and West Virginia has permissibly maintained female sports for biological females consistent with Title IX,” the ruling states. “West Virginia and Idaho did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by maintaining female sports teams for biological females,” the high court determined. What’s more, a person’s sex is clearly defined by the “immutable characteristic” of biology, not presumed identity, it explains: “The term ‘sex’ in Title IX, the Javits Amendment, and the Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex. The ordinary meaning of the term ‘sex’ at the time of enactment in the early 1970s was biological sex and not gender identity, particularly in the sports context. See, e.g., Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677, 686 (‘sex’ is ‘an immutable characteristic’). In addition, the Title IX regulations allowed separate sports teams precisely because of the inherent physical differences between biological men and biological women.” …. “The Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit the States from applying that same principle to all biological males, including those who identify as female. States are not required to conduct an individual-by-individual comparison of the physical and athletic capabilities of all biological males in order to satisfy intermediate scrutiny.” Even if female-identifying biological males who take puberty blockers or hormones do not retain physical advantages over biological females (a subject of ongoing debate), the ruling says it would not alter the equal protection conclusion. In the past six years, 27 states have enacted laws that maintain female sports for biological females. Additional states are expected to follow suit, in light of Tuesday’s opinion. The ruling does more than just affirm the right of states to pass laws prohibiting biological males from participating in female sports, however. Tuesday’s decision also lays the foundation for female athletes to file lawsuits contending that states are required, not just allowed, to ban trans athletes from women's sports in order to comply with Title IX. Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law enacted in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding. The Equal Protection Clause is a core constitutional guarantee under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It mandates that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws."