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An Idaho transgender athlete asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to drop a challenge against a state law that “bars transgender girls and women from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams,” according to a filing by her attorneys.
In July, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case Little v. Hecox, which began in 2020. A trans athlete at Boise State University, Lindsay Hecox, sued the state to compete on the university’s women’s cross-country team.
“While playing women’s sports is important to Ms. Hecox, her top priority is graduating from college and living a healthy and safe life,” a filing from her attorneys read. “Ms. Hecox has therefore decided to permanently withdraw and refrain from playing any women’s sports at BSU or in Idaho covered by H.B. 500.”
“Ms. Hecox has firmly committed not to try out for or participate in any school-sponsored women’s sports covered by H.B. 500,” it added. “Accordingly, on September 2, 2025, Ms. Hecox filed the Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, dismissing her complaint with prejudice.”
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People hold flags and signs at a demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024. (Reuters/Benoit Tessier)
If the request is approved, the case cannot be refiled.
In April 2020, Hecox pursued a challenge against H.B. 500 as a freshman at BSU at the time, according to lawyers for the now-24-year-old.
“Ms. Hecox alleged that she intended to try out for the BSU women’s track and cross-country teams as a rising sophomore, and that H.B. 500 barred her from doing so in violation of her constitutional and statutory rights. Ms. Hecox moved for a preliminary injunction on the basis of her equal protection claim,” the filing said.
“On August 17, 2020, the district court preliminarily enjoined petitioners from enforcing H.B. 500, concluding that Ms. Hecox was likely to succeed on the merits of her equal protection challenge and that the equitable factors likewise favored preliminary injunctive relief,” it added.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit later affirmed the district court’s preliminary injunction in June 2024, before the case made its way up to the Supreme Court.
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Demonstrators carry signs and flags in support of transgender people during the Trans March in Boise, Idaho, on Sept. 13, 2024. (Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
In the five years since the case began, Hecox has faced “significant challenges that have affected her both personally and academically,” the lawyers wrote. They cite an “illness” and the 2022 death of Hecox’s father as having impeded their client’s “ability to focus on her schoolwork and participate in sports.”
“Although Ms. Hecox has remained in college and has continued to find strength and [camaraderie] in sports despite these challenges, she will not graduate until at least May of 2026,” it continued.
“Ms. Hecox has also come under negative public scrutiny from certain quarters because of this litigation, and she believes that such continued – and likely intensified – attention in the coming school year will distract her from her schoolwork and prevent her from meeting her academic and personal goals,” the filing said.
“Ms. Hecox’s unequivocal abandonment of her claims against petitioners renders this case moot, and since the dismissal is with prejudice, there is no possibility of ‘the regeneration of the controversy by a reassertion of a right to litigate,’” it concluded. “Because Ms. Hecox is abandoning her claims after prevailing in the court of appeals, this Court should vacate the underlying judgment.”
A transgender pride flag is displayed outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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The Solicitor General of Idaho wrote in a subsequent filing to the Supreme Court, “petitioners intend to oppose the suggestion of mootness.”
“Given the difficulty of researching, preparing, proofing, and printing an adequate response to the suggestion of mootness,” the solicitor general continued, “We request an additional 14 days to oppose the suggestion and a new deadline of September 26.”
Fox News Digital’s Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
