“After all, a practice or meet lost can never be restored,” lawyers for a Puyallup, Wash., high school wrestler told the Supreme Court on Oct. 15.
They want the justices to block Washington’s trans-inclusive school sports rules, or let the wrestler skip those matches without a penalty. As of Oct. 28, the Supreme Court docket showed no ruling on that request. The case is K.M.K. v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, No. 26A458. Girls’ wrestling season starts Nov. 16, her lawyers say.
The request landed with Justice Elena Kagan on Oct. 2. She handles emergencies from the 9th Circuit, and she asked the state, the sports association and the Puyallup School District to answer. They did Oct. 13.
Washington Says the Wrestler’s Emergency Is ‘Manufactured’
“The ‘irreparable’ nature of Applicants’ claimed harm is manufactured,” Attorney General Nick Brown’s office wrote in the state’s brief. “Applicants have sought emergency relief three times despite there not being any true emergency.”
The state says she’d run into two trans wrestlers at most this season. She can already forfeit those.
The WIAA didn’t soften it either. “The Application fails at every step, and each failure is independently sufficient to deny it,” its brief says. It also told the court it “does not receive any federal funding.”
The December 2025 Puyallup Match Behind K.M.K. v. WIAA
K.M.K. is a cisgender girl, identified in court papers only by her initials. She and her mother, Stephanie Lynne Brown, allege that a trans opponent used a move called an “oil check” on her in a December 2025 match. Pierce County prosecutors reviewed it and didn’t file charges. They said moves like that are “somewhat common” in wrestling, according to the state.
She quit for the season in January. Months later she and her mother sued. A federal judge said no to an injunction. A 9th Circuit panel said no too, writing that keeping her away from every trans competitor would mean collecting “new, invasive information” about lots of students, Education Week reported.
Alliance Defending Freedom represents her.
Initiative 638 and What Happens After Nov. 3
Washington pointed the justices to the ballot. “Initiative No. IL26-638 will appear on the ballot in the November 2026 general election,” the state wrote. If it passes, it “would prohibit transgender girls from participating on girls’ athletic teams.” Here’s what I-638 would do.
ADF says that’s too slow. “The earliest that initiative will be effective is 30 days after the election,” it wrote in the reply. “Even under the rosiest scenario, K.M.K. will miss part of the girls’ wrestling season.”
In June, in West Virginia v. B.P.J., the court let states bar trans girls from girls’ teams. Whether Title IX forces states to do it is a different question. “Nothing in this opinion is intended to decide that question,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote.
Columbia law professor Suzanne Goldberg put it this way to Education Week: the ruling “answered only half the question.”
