Judge Dismisses Harvard From Title IX Swimsuit Over Trans Swimmer’s Match Participation | Information

Updated July 29, 2025, at 2:14 p.m.

A federal choose on Monday dismissed claims towards Harvard from a lawsuit filed by three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers alleging Harvard violated Title IX laws by permitting a transgender swimmer to compete in a 2022 girls’s swim championship.

The swimsuit — filed towards Harvard, Penn, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents in early February — accused Harvard of breaking federal nondiscrimination legislation by permitting transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete within the the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted at Harvard.

Lawyers for the University requested to be dismissed from the swimsuit in April, arguing that Harvard didn’t make selections round eligibility and adopted NCAA coverage — which, till February, permitted transgender athletes to compete on girls’s groups if their testosterone ranges had been under a restrict set inside every sport.

The swimsuit additionally alleges that Harvard violated Title IX by failing to supply sex-separated locker rooms the place cisgender feminine athletes might change individually from transgender teammates and opponents. Lawyers for the University argued once more that the supplied locker rooms had been compliant with NCAA coverage.

U.S. District Judge William G. Young ’62, who’s overseeing the case, dominated that Harvard internet hosting a championship in compliance with present requirements didn’t represent a separate Title IX violation from claims towards Penn and the NCAA. The claims towards Harvard alone didn’t have precedent below Title IX legislation, he wrote.

Proceedings for the remaining case towards Penn and the NCAA shall be paused till Gaines v. NCAA — one other Title IX case over the NCAA’s former eligibility insurance policies for transgender athletes, filed by former University of Kentucky swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines — is set in Georgia’s federal district courtroom.

The swimsuit towards Harvard, Penn, and the 2 athletic associations was first filed in February by Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist, and Margot Kaczorowski, all of whom competed alongside Thomas at Penn between 2018 and 2024. They additionally alleged that they had been denied alternatives of their sport when Thomas positioned above them.

Under stress from the Trump administration, Penn not too long ago agreed to take away information held individually by Thomas and provides them as a substitute to cisgender lady swimmers who held the next-lowest occasions. The Trump administration has additionally ordered the NCAA, different regulatory our bodies, and universities to stop transgender girls from competing in girls’s sports activities.

—Staff author Laurel M. Shugart will be reached at [email protected]. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.