Inside the SCOTUS hearing bound to be a turning point in the culture war over trans athletes in women's sports

Fox News correspondent David Spunt reports on the Supreme Court arguments on transgender athlete bans and their broader policy implications on ‘Special Report.’

WASHINGTON – Trained military snipers stood on the roof of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday standing guard over a verbal battle between an alliance of women donning shirts that read XX-XY, against a hoard of pink, white and blue-painted activists, some wearing costumes, and some barely wearing anything. 

At one point, the convergence descended into harrowing cries of "Stop cutting off the breasts!" while the other side tried to drown it out with a blunt and repetitive chant of "Trans! Trans! Trans!" 

Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

But inside the court chambers, one side was constantly in full retreat. 

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Attorneys for transgender athlete Lindsay Hecox argued to have the very lawsuit that they originally filed, Hecox v Little, dropped as moot now that it was being reviewed by the nation's highest court. The suit, which was filed in 2020, blocked Idaho's law to protect women's sports and allowed Hecox to compete on Boise State's women's cross-country team.

And in a defining moment for the trans athlete legal team, it even had to retreat from one of the very arguments it used to try to get the case dropped. Cooley Legal attorney Kathleen Hartnett admitted that Hecox was "unlikely" to graduate in May after the firm previously argued that the athlete's May graduation would render a ruling about Hecox's athletic eligibility