{"id":2535583,"date":"2026-01-13T21:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases-3\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T21:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:48:43","slug":"blackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackburn challenges Jackson to define &#8216;woman&#8217; in two major cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases-3%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2535583&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sen. Marsha Blackburn criticized Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Supreme Court heard challenges to Idaho and West Virginia laws that bar transgender girls from competing on girls&#8217; and women&#8217;s school sports teams. blackburn invoked Jackson&#8217;s 2022 confirmation exchange, when Jackson declined to define &#8220;woman,&#8221; and argued the Court should uphold sex-based distinctions to protect women&#8217;s athletic opportunities and separate facilities. The cases turn on weather those state policies violate Title IX and the Constitution&#8217;s Equal Protection Clause. During oral argument, Justice Jackson probed how the laws distinguish between biological sex and gender identity and how eligibility for girls&#8217; teams is defined. After more than three hours, several justices signaled they may allow sex-based classifications in athletics, and a decision, which could affect nationwide school policies, is expected this summer.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Blackburn challenges Jackson to define &lsquo;woman&rsquo; in Supreme Court transgender sports cases<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2472124\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Sen. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marsha-blackburn\/\">Marsha Blackburn<\/a> (R-TN) renewed her criticism of Justice <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ketanji-brown-jackson\/\">Ketanji Brown Jackson<\/a> on Tuesday as the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\">Supreme Court<\/a> heard arguments over whether states can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases\/\" title=\"... to ... ......... in two major ...\">enforce sex-based rules<\/a> in<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/sports\/\"> school sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a radio interview, Blackburn referenced Jackson&rsquo;s past refusal to define the word &ldquo;woman&rdquo; during her 2022 confirmation hearings, suggesting the issue remains relevant as the court considers cases involving <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/transgender\/\">transgender athletes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4416612\/sotomayor-swipes-supreme-court-rejecting-precedent-been-doing-lot-lately\/\">Sotomayor swipes at Supreme Court rejecting precedent: &#8216;We&#8217;ve been doing an awful lot of that lately&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/4417824\/mike-johnson-gop-revolt-workforce-bill\/\">Speaker Johnson suffers blow after GOP revolt over workforce bill<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4417908\/new-hampshire-tighten-voting-laws\/\">New Hampshire lawmakers seek to tighten voting laws<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;ll be interesting to see if today she says she has no opinion because she&rsquo;s not a biologist,&rdquo; Blackburn <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/oconnor-and-company\/sen-marsha-blackburn-on-deporting-fraudsters-and-defending-girls-sports-at-supreme-court\">said<\/a> in the radio interview.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court is reviewing laws from Idaho and West Virginia that prohibit transgender athletes who identify as girls from <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4415398\/riley-gaines-interview-alleged-victim-pivotal-supreme-court-case\/\">competing on girls&rsquo; and women&rsquo;s sports teams<\/a>. The cases center on whether those policies violate Title IX and the Constitution&rsquo;s Equal Protection Clause.<\/p>\n<p>Blackburn said she supports the court&rsquo;s decision to hear the cases and believes the justices should uphold sex-based distinctions in athletics.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are pleased that the court is taking up these cases. I think it&rsquo;s important for them to be heard,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And as you remember, when Ketanji Brown Jackson was before us for her hearing, I told her I felt like this issue would end up before the court. And it&rsquo;s why I asked if she could give me the definition of a woman, which she declined to do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Now, the court needs to weigh in on this,&rdquo; Blackburn added. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And one would think since there are two sexes, male and female, and you can identify either as male or female, that they would uphold the right and protect the right of women to compete with women and women to have those opportunities and not be forced to compete with men &mdash; to compete or share locker rooms.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During Jackson&rsquo;s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in March 2022, Blackburn asked the then-nominee to define &ldquo;woman.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">FLASHBACK: In 2022, Senator Marsha Blackburn asks Ketanji Brown Jackson (who was a SCOTUS nominee at the time) what a woman is: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hJztr384uM\">pic.twitter.com\/hJztr384uM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Flashback with Seymour (@seymourtherat) <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/seymourtherat\/status\/1755662833872728254?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>    <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Can you provide a definition for the word &lsquo;woman&rsquo;?&rdquo; Blackburn asked.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a biologist,&rdquo; Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange became a flashpoint in national discussions over gender identity, women&rsquo;s sports, and policies relating to transgender individuals.<\/p>\n<p>During Tuesday&rsquo;s oral arguments, Jackson <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JCNSeverino\/status\/2011144435187490960\">questioned<\/a> how the laws distinguish between sex and gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You have the overarching classification &mdash; everybody has to play on the team that is the same as their sex at birth,&rdquo; Jackson said. &ldquo;But then you have a gender identity definition operating within that, meaning that for cisgender girls, they can play consistent with their gender identity. For transgender girls, they can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Jackson added that her concern centered on how the laws define eligibility for girls&rsquo; teams.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It doesn&rsquo;t seem much has changed since Justice Jackson&rsquo;s confirmation hearing&hellip; <\/p>\n<p>She still doesn&rsquo;t know what a woman is. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8cujCdxB0X\">pic.twitter.com\/8cujCdxB0X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JCNSeverino\/status\/2011144435187490960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;We accept that you can separate boys and girls, and now we&rsquo;re looking at the definition of a girl and saying only people assigned female at birth qualify,&rdquo; Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>After more than three hours of arguments, the Supreme Court appeared likely to uphold the state laws, with several justices signaling support for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-challenges-jackson-to-define-woman-in-two-major-cases-2\/\" title=\"... to ... ......... in two major ...\">allowing sex-based classifications<\/a> in athletics.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/4415331\/randy-fine-bill-greenland-trump-51st-state\/\"><strong>FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PUSHES TO MAKE GREENLAND 51ST STATE IN BILL SEEKING &lsquo;SOVEREIGNTY&rsquo; OVER TERRITORY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following the Supreme Court hearing, Blackburn again criticized Jackson&rsquo;s comments in an X post.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Refusing to define the word &lsquo;woman&rsquo; should&rsquo;ve taken Ketanji Brown Jackson out of the running for the highest court in the land,&rdquo; Blackburn <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarshaBlackburn\/status\/2011208509766152661\">wrote<\/a> on X. &ldquo;Democrats are on the side of delusion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The court&rsquo;s eventual ruling could have broad implications for how <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >schools nationwide regulate transgender participation<\/a> in athletics. Their decision is expected sometime this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackburn presses Jackson to define &#8216;woman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2678,"featured_media":2535584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/blackburn-kbj-image-collage-l2i8mcwos-1768345753273-e1768346784383.jpg?1768328777&amp;w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[53907,33047,36957],"class_list":["post-2535583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-gender-definition","tag-ketanji-brown-jackson","tag-marsha-blackburn"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/blackburn-kbj-image-collage-l2i8mcwos-1768345753273-e1768346784383.jpg?1768328777&amp;w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2535583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2535587,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535583\/revisions\/2535587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2535584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}