Personal hardships, Supreme Court ruling prompted withdrawal, attorney says
Two transgender girls from New Hampshire have withdrawn their lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order barring transgender athletes from female school sports, their attorney said Thursday, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and personal hardships.
The lawsuit was the first to challenge Trump’s executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, had originally filed a 2024 complaint against New Hampshire’s law banning transgender girls from school sports. They later amended their complaint to challenge the federal executive order.
Both sides agreed to pause the case while the Supreme Court considered similar state bans from West Virginia and Idaho. Last month, the Supreme Court upheld those laws in a 6-3 decision and ruled that barring transgender girls and women from female sports teams does not violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
A federal judge in New Hampshire had previously granted a court order allowing Tirrell and Turmelle to play while the case moved through litigation. For Tirrell, the order meant she could remain on her high school girls’ soccer team. For Turmelle, it allowed her to try out for different sports.
“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” Erchull said in a statement. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”
Erchull did not specify which personal hardships led the teens to withdraw the lawsuit.