Federal appeals court reinstates Vermont Christian school after it objected to transgender player

A federal appeals court says a Vermont Christian school can participate in the state’s sports league, overturning a previous ruling that upheld a ban on the school after it forfeited a high school girls basketball game against a team with a transgender athlete.

In a Sept. 9 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted Mid Vermont Christian School a preliminary injunction to rejoin the Vermont Principals’ Association — also known as the state’s executive council that governs school sports — as the legal battle continues in court.

“We conclude that plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the VPA’s expulsion of Mid Vermont was not neutral because it displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs,” the appeals court wrote in their decision.

In 2023, the Quechee-based private school forfeited a game because officials believed the opposing teams’ transgender player jeopardized “the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”

In response, the VPA ruled that the school had violated the council’s policies on race, gender and disability awareness, and therefore was ineligible to participate in all state-sponsored games and other events including debate tournaments and science fairs.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Mid Vermont Christian, some students and parents then filed a lawsuit accusing the state of violating the school’s First Amendment rights. It said Mid Vermont Christian, which has competed in the state sports association for nearly 30 years, forfeited the single game “to avoid violating its religious beliefs.”

“The government cannot punish religious schools — and the families they serve — by permanently kicking them out of state-sponsored sports simply because the state disagrees with their religious beliefs,” David Cortman, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom who is representing the Vermont school, said in an email Monday.

Emails seeking comment were sent to Mid Vermont and the Vermont Principals Association.

A lower district court in 2024 ruled in the state’s favor, arguing that the executive council applies the athletic policy uniformly and doesn’t target religious organizations for enforcement or discrimination.

However, the appeals court disagreed. The appellate court argued that the state was “hostile to Mid Vermont’s religious views” and declared the outright ban on participating in sports and non-athletic activities “unprecedented, overbroad, and procedurally irregular.”

Specifically, the court took issue with the VPA’s executive director, Jay Nichols, who testified before a Vermont legislative committee in favor of legislation to ban public funding to religious schools just days after Mid Vermont forfeited the game in 2023.

Nichols told lawmakers “thank goodness the student in question didn’t attend that religious school” and said Vermont shouldn’t condone such discrimination.

“Put simply, the VPA may not impose discipline based on its view that Mid Vermont’s religious objection was ‘wrong,’” the court ruled.

The ongoing case is the latest development in the ongoing debate over transgender athletes participating in public school sports. The Trump administration has pressed states to block transgender youth from participating in girls sports.

Currently, at least 26 states have laws on the books barring transgender women and girls from competing in certain women’s or girls sports competitions. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider the constitutionality of the bans in its coming term.