A tiny fix can ensure the college sports bill won’t damage women’s sports

Over the past several years, 27 states have enacted laws designating girls’ sports for female athletes only. And on June 30, the Supreme Court upheld Idaho and West Virginia laws to that effect, affirming that all such laws are constitutional and permitted under Title IX.

That decision was a decisive win for advocates of these protections. Unfortunately, though, a bill making its way through the Senate threatens to undermine that win unintentionally. The growing chorus of voices warning about this is a big reason the vote on the bill has now been postponed to September. Fortunately, a tiny fix will easily resolve the problem.

The bill, known as the Protect College Sports Act, comes from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and several co-sponsors. Its primary aim is to establish national standards for athlete compensation and transfer eligibility — an effort with broad bipartisan appeal. But the bill also imposes nationwide eligibility rules for college athletics and, in doing so, curtails states’ authority to regulate eligibility on their own terms.

That is significant, because most state laws protecting women’s sports operate precisely through eligibility language, declaring that men are eligible only for men’s or co-ed teams, not for women’s teams. If a mischievous court reads the bill’s provisions broadly, it could plausibly conclude that the new bill preempts those state protections.

Gender activists spent years arguing — and often getting judges to agree — that Title IX itself prohibits state laws protecting women’s sports from male participation. Given a chance, they will surely twist any ambiguous language in the Protect College Sports Act for the same nefarious purpose.

Fortunately, the remedy here........

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