Attorneys have filed a motion to disqualify a federal judge from their lawsuit against a Connecticut policy that allows transgender girls to compete in girls’ and women’s athletics, noting that the judge has ordered that transgender athletes not be referred to as “male” in hearings and court filings.
Attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian nonprofit, filed a motion Friday to remove U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny from the lawsuit, saying his order is “unjustified and inconsistent with the appearance of impartiality.”
“Plaintiffs’ counsel have the right and professional responsibility to communicate clearly and accurately about their case and to present their arguments in a manner consistent with their legal theories and the dispositive facts,” the ADF attorneys say in the motion to disqualify Judge Chatigny.
In a lawsuit filed last year, the ADF is representing four Connecticut high school girls, and their mothers, who say they were unfairly denied opportunities to compete at regional meets after being bested by two transgender athletes.
The lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy allowing transgender athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity violates Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination.
The athletic conference’s transgender policy says school districts should determine students’ participation in sex-segregated sports based on “daily life activities in the school and community at the time that sports eligibility is determined.” The conference is being represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union, Connecticut’s school boards and the state Human Rights Office.
Hearings over the lawsuit have been conducted via telephone as part of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
In Friday’s motion, ADF attorneys noted that Judge Chatigny ordered them in an April 16 hearing to no longer refer to the transgender athletes as “males,” saying the attorneys wouldn’t “’surrender any legitimate interest or position if you refer to them as transgender females,’ and [declaring] that the Order was ’consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency.’”
According to a transcript of the April 16 hearing, ADF senior counsel Roger Brooks told the judge that he would not be adequately representing his clients and their position by using the word “female.”
“[B]ecause that’s simply, when we’re talking about physiology, that’s not accurate, at least in the belief of my clients,” Mr. Brooks said, according to the transcript.
Connecticut athletic conference officials say the policy is consistent with state law and was approved by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in a 2019 consultation.
Transgender athletic policies have drawn attention across the nation. Various state legislatures have considered bills that would allow transgender athletes to participate in sex-segregated sports only by the gender assigned to them at birth.
Only Idaho has enacted such legislation. Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed a bill in April that he says will contribute to fairness in competition. That law is being challenged in federal court.
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