We Dissent welcomes guest Shiwali Patel, Senior Director of Education Justice at National Women's Law Center, who walks us through the anti-trans sports ban cases currently before the Supreme Court, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. We discuss the history of Title IX and why the attack on trans sports participation is really an attack on the basis of this critical nondiscrimination law.

Background

• Shiwali Patel's bio

• National Women's Law Center

• Previous trans rights episodes

• • Episode 16 – Sex on the Brain: the Assault on Trans People with Sasha Buchert

  • Episode 38 – Skrmetti v. U.S.

• NWLC Amicus

• SCOTUSblog - "The justices and gender pronouns"

• SCOTUSblog - "Supreme Court appears likely to uphold transgender athlete bans"

Cases

• Little v. Hecox

• • SCOTUSblog

  • Oral argument transcript

• West Virginia v. B.P.J.

• • SCOTUSblog

  • Oral argument transcript

Check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and X.

Our website, we-dissent.org, has more information as well as episode transcripts.

We Dissent welcomes back Alison Gill as co-host! Alison shares what she's been up to since leaving the pod, and then walks Rebecca and Liz through the state of our federal bench. We discuss federal judicial nominations from the recent presidential administrations and what it has meant or means for religious liberty and other civil rights.

Show Notes

• National Women's Law Center

• Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Per Curiam - "Not Enough Respect For The Judiciary—or Too Much? Arrogance And The Myth Of Judicial Supremacy"

• New York Times - "Trump's 'Superstar' Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor"

Check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and X.

Our website, we-dissent.org, has more information as well as episode transcripts.

There's no new episode this month, instead we have a special message for our listeners. We're excited to announce that Alison Gill is returning to the podcast starting in February! Additionally, the National Women's Law Center is going to be a co-sponsor of We Dissent moving forward. We have a lot of great episodes planned for 2026 and can't wait to share them with you.

Check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and X.

Our website, we-dissent.org, has more information as well as episode transcripts.