Washington AG Brings In Outside Firm To Defend Girls' Sports Law

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has turned to an outside law firm to defend Washington's new girls' sports law in court, appointing Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner as special assistant attorneys general on Thursday, November 12, in Olympia.^[1]

Brown's move comes as opponents, including civil liberties groups and families, ask a King County judge to block the measure before it takes effect on December 3, arguing it violates privacy and equal-rights protections for transgender students.^[1] Brown said his office will instead focus on separate lawsuits seeking to protect transgender residents' access to health care and equal treatment while outside counsel handles the politically charged ballot initiative defense.

Washington voters approved the measure, Initiative 638, on November 3, requiring school districts and athletic associations to bar biological males from competing in girls' sports and to rely on sports physicals to verify sex for students entering girls' competitions. The initiative set up an immediate clash between its backers, who frame the policy as a necessary protection for competitive fairness and safety in girls' athletics, and civil-rights advocates who say it targets a small and vulnerable group of transgender youth and invites intrusive medical scrutiny of students.

Opponents including the ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice, Brown's former firm Pacifica Law Group, the Washington Education Association and several affected families filed suit in King County Superior Court on Monday, seeking a preliminary order stopping the law before school districts must implement it next month.^[1] Their complaint contends that using sports physicals as a gatekeeping tool will pressure doctors and schools to share sensitive medical information and could lead to invasive questioning or exams of girls whose sex is challenged. Supporters counter that schools already require physicals for safety, and argue that tying eligibility to the sex listed in those exams is a simple way to preserve single-sex categories rooted in biology.

By bringing in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Brown is trying to insulate his office from conflict-of-interest claims because one of the lead plaintiffs' firms is Pacifica Law Group, where he previously worked.^[1] The appointment also lets him maintain that the state will both defend laws voters pass and pursue his own agenda of expanding protections for transgender Washingtonians, instead of having his staff argue on both sides of overlapping legal questions in different courtrooms. That dual-track posture underscores how the initiative fight has become not only a test of girls' sports eligibility rules, but also an early legal test of how far a state can go in restricting transgender participation while still promising equal treatment under its constitution.

1. OutKick