Judge torpedoes transgender’s ‘manipulative’ agenda in court fight
A “manipulative” scheme by a man who says he’s a woman and won a favorable ruling against Idaho in the lower courts but suddenly wanted to drop the case before the Supreme Court could rule has been torpedoed by a judge.
It is District Judge David Nye who rejected a motion to dismiss the case that was filed by Lindsay Hecox.
Hecox is a man who went to court to be allowed to compete against women in Idaho events.
A Fox News report said the judge ordered the case to continue.
The state, he said, “Has a fair right to have its arguments heard and adjudicated once and for all. … The court feels [the man’s] mootness argument is, as above, somewhat manipulate to avoid Supreme Court review and should not be endorsed.”
Hecox had petitioned to be allowed to walk away from the case, but the judge rejected his demands.
The case stems from the filing by Hecox in 2020 when he demanded to join the women’s cross-country team at Boise State.
The state’s law prevented men from competing in women’s sports and he demanded the law be changed.
A judge at the entry level of the federal court system agreed, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Then the Supreme Court said it would review and Hecox suddenly wanted to flee the legal dispute.
He claimed, at the time, he decided to “permanently withdraw and refrain from playing any women’s sports at BSU or in Idaho.”
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador fought the effort to end the case.
“From day one in office, defending this law has been a top priority because Idaho’s daughters deserve fair competition based on biological reality. The district court has ruled that years of litigation, Idaho has earned the right to present our case to the nation’s highest court. This decision keeps our lawsuit alive, and I won’t stop until women and girls are safe to compete, participate, and excel in competitive sports,” he told Fox News Digital.
Labrador said he hopes the case results in a Supreme Court ruling protecting the rights of woman to have women’s sports.
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley said, “Hecox clearly did not like the prospects on appeal and sought to withdraw the case after the granting of certiorari.”
He noted it is one of two cases pending at the high court on the issue of men demanding to be allowed to take over women’s sports.
After a transgender athlete won before the Ninth Circuit in blocking an Idaho law, the Supreme Court granted review. Hecox clearly did not like the prospects and sought to withdraw the case before the Court could rule. Judge Nye just denied that effort. https://t.co/drJnvkfbNg
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 15, 2025
He said, “We have previously seen the court struggle with litigants gaming the system to pull out of an appeal just before the court could rule. That was the case with New York when it moved to avoid a ruling on gun control laws and ultimately succeeded in getting a dismissal over the objections of some justices.”
WorldNetDaily reported when the attempt to end the case developed, and on the reaction then from ADF, which is working with Labrador on the case.
I’m astonished that the ACLU has filed a dismissal at the lower court in Little v. Hecox—one of two women’s sports cases scheduled to be heard at SCOTUS—and asked the Court to declare the appeal moot.
This is a desperate, bad-faith move that the Court should soundly reject. pic.twitter.com/e964LzUN8u
— Kristen Waggoner (@KristenWaggoner) September 3, 2025
The ADF said then, “Let’s be clear: the ACLU picked this fight. In red states throughout America, they’ve gone on offense, filing lawsuits against commonsense laws meant to protect women’s sports. In their five-year litigation against Idaho’s law, the ACLU has repeatedly argued that this issue is ‘a live controversy’ and is ‘not moot.’ They won at the 9th Circuit, forcing Idahoans to allow men in women’s sports against their will. And now that the Supreme Court has taken up the case, they suddenly want to take their ball and go home? That’s not right—and SCOTUS has looked unfavorably on this tactic in the past. A 2012 ruling decried such ‘maneuvers designed to insulate a decision from review by this Court.'”
Man who brought transgender fight to Supreme Court now quits, walks away