On Monday, a federal judge ruled against Mountain West Conference players and coaches who sought to block San José State’s women's volleyball team from competing in an upcoming championship tournament.
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 13 in Colorado by 12 individuals against the conference, its commissioner, the current SJSU women's volleyball head coach and the California State University (CSU).
The Mountain West Conference is a college athletic league that competes at the Division I level for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to the Mountain West Conference website.
Among these 12 plaintiffs are the current women's volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser, current assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and two former SJSU women's volleyball players, Elle Patterson and Alyssa Sugai.
The lawsuit sought an emergency motion for preliminary relief before the 2024 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship Tournament scheduled on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
However, this motion was denied by U.S. District Court Judge Shane Kato Crews.
An emergency motion typically requests some form of action to occur within 21 days or less, according to a web page from Law Insider.
Preliminary relief is there to prevent any harm or irreparable actions from happening during the duration of the lawsuit and to preserve the status quo, according to a JD Porter Law web page.
“Having only two weeks to address consequential injunctive relief certainly begets an emergency,” Kato Crews stated in the ruling.
Javan Hedlund, the Mountain West Conference senior associate commissioner, wrote in an email statement how the conference is responding to the judge's ruling.
“The Mountain West Conference is satisfied with the denial of the preliminary injunction and will continue to uphold the policies put in place by our Board of Directors, which directly align with the (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and USA Volleyball,” Hedlund wrote.
Hedlund said the conference is excited to celebrate and spotlight the student-athlete's hard work during the tournament.
Four teams forfeited against the SJSU women's volleyball team including Boise State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming and University of Nevada, Reno since the beginning of the season.
Slusser, along with Utah State University player Kaylie Ray and Boise State University players, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk, requested an emergency appeal of the ruling.
The Spartan Daily reached out for comment from Slusser, Ray and the Van Kirk sisters, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
In court documents obtained by The Spartan Daily, the plaintiffs sought the Mountain West Conference to do four things before the tournament, which starts on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“(1) rescind the (Transgender Participation Policy); (2) flip the wins granted SJSU and the losses accorded forfeiting teams; (3) recalculate the teams’ standings; and (4) enjoin SJSU from continuing to roster its alleged trans teammate and prohibit her from playing in the upcoming tournament,” court documents stated.
The Spartan Daily is not identifying the individual mentioned above because she has not publicly identified herself.
The 2024-25 Mountain West Conference Handbook includes a Transgender Participation Policy that outlines procedures and provisions for transgender student-athletes.
The policy was established in 2011 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and was later updated in 2022, according to a Nov. 19 CalMatters article.
The lawsuit alleges that the policy infringes on the student athletes' First Amendment rights by penalizing teams and individuals who boycott “intraconference contests” along with limiting inquiries of schools that have transgender students, according to court documents.
Similarly, the lawsuit alleges that the Transgender Participation Policy was not included in the Mountain West Conference until the day that Boise State University announced it was not going to play against SJSU on Sept. 28.
“The new (Mountain West Conference) policy was clearly intended to chill and suppress the free speech rights of women in the (Mountain West Conference),” the lawsuit alleged.
However, in the motion, Kato Crews rules that while the argument is persuasive it loses value based on evidence that the Transgender Participation Policy became valid in 2022 and has not changed within the past two years.
“It is also notable that the (Mountain West Conference) member institutions who forfeited their matches against SJSU during the 2024 season acknowledged their understanding of the application of the (Transgender Participation Policy) to their forfeits, without protest,” Kato Crews stated in the ruling.
The 2024-25 Mountain West Conference Handbook outlines the repercussions if a team refuses to compete in an intraconference contest against an institution that has a transgender athlete.
The forfeiting team will be charged with a loss and the opposing team credited with a win, according to the handbook.
“In now seeking to rescind the (Transgender Participation Policy) rescind its application to the earlier forfeits, recalculate team standings and de-roster SJSU’s team member, the proposed injunction would disrupt (rather than preserve) the status quo,” Kato Crews reports.
Status quo in a preliminary injunction refers to the present state of between the two parties involved in the lawsuit, according to a July 9 article from Rest The Case.
Kato Crews states that the forfeited institutions publicly acknowledged their acceptance and understanding of the resulting wins and losses.
Robin McElhatton, SJSU’s assistant director of media relations, said the university is pleased with the ruling made by Kato Crews.
“All San José State University student-athletes are eligible to participate in their sports under NCAA and Mountain West Conference rules,” McElhatton said. “We are gratified that the court rejected an eleventh-hour attempt to change those rules.”
Throughout the Nov. 13 lawsuit, several of the plaintiffs expressed safety concerns over the student-athlete in question.
“... there is no authority to impose a forfeit or assign a win or loss when a concern over student-athlete safety causes a contest not to be played or completed,” the lawsuit stated.
Robin McMahon, a SJSU fifth-year history student, who openly identifies as a transgender woman talked about the dangers of these assumptions.
“It plays into that narrative that assumes that trans people are inherently dangerous, just by nature of being trans,” McMahon said.
She said that no rule requires straight people to have to continually announce themselves or continually assure people of that fact to be accepted.
Jason Maymon, the CSU’s senior director of media relations and public affairs, relayed support of the court's ruling.
“The CSU does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, on or off the court,” Maymon said. “We applaud the Court’s decision and will be cheering on the San José State University volleyball team as they continue to compete for a championship in the Mountain West Conference tournament.”
Though the plaintiff expressed safety concerns, Kato Crews questioned the basis of the lawsuit considering the student-athlete in question has been with the team since 2022.
“It was not until the spring of 2024, at the earliest, that questions arose from plaintiffs regarding her gender identity,” Kato Crews stated.
The Spartan Daily reached out to Batie-Smoose, the assistant head coach of the women's volleyball team, but did not receive a response.
Todd Kress, the head coach of SJSU’s women's volleyball team, expressed enthusiasm for the team's participation in the scheduled tournament.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to represent San José State University and the 19 young women who have so valiantly helped us get to this point,” Kress said.
