Nancy Mace rips trans athlete’s attorney for refusing to define sex at SCOTUS women’s sports hearing

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Rep.Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called out American Civil Liberties Union attorney Joshua Block for refusing to define sex after arguing against considering its definition during aSupreme Court hearingon trans athletes in women’s sports.

Block, who represents transgender athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson of West Virginia, urged the nine justicesnot to consider the definitionof sex when ruling on Pepper-Jackson’s case, saying, “I don’t think the purpose of Title IX is to have an accurate definition of sex.”

Block later conceded, “I think for this case, you can accept for the sake of this case that we’re talking about what they’ve termed to be biological sex.”

Joshua Block walks down the steps of the Supreme Court

Joshua Block, senior counsel with the ACLU’s LGBTQ &HIV Projects and lead attorney representing Becky Pepper-Jackson, outside the U.S.Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Jan.13, 2026.(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Mace shared footage of Block dodging the question on X, condemning the ACLU for refusing to define ‘sex.’

“If the ACLU can’t even define what sex is, they have no credibility lecturing anyone about sex discrimination, which is the whole basis of their argument,” Mace wrote.

John Bursch of Alliance Defending Freedom, the law firm representing female athletes and thestate of West Virginia, said Block’s insistence on not defining sex was “completely bizarre.”

“That’s completely bizarre.I don’t know how you can decide a case interpreting sex under Title IX and under the equal protection clause by not defining sex,�

INSIDE THE SCOTUS HEARING BOUND TO BE A TURNING POINT IN THE CULTURE WAR OVER TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

“Sex, when Title IX was passed, meant biological sex.The entire statute was written with biological distinctions.It even refers to each of the sexes.I don’t know how the court can do that, and it says a lot that he felt and the ACLU felt they had to tell the court not to define sex in order for them to survive this case.”

Earlier in the hearing, Block minimized the impact Pepper-Jackson’s presence on a girls cross-country team had on other girls, arguing that cross-country is a sport that doesn’t have cuts.Justice Neal Gorsuch responded,saying many sports do have cuts, and those sports are affected by the ruling in this case as well.

Block responded by arguing plenty offemale athletes don’t makethe cut on their team due to being outperformed by other female athletes and then admitted that if a female athlete is displaced by a trans athlete it is “unfortunate.”

“No one likes to lose.No one likes to not make the team.People often don’t make the team.Cisgender girls don’t make the team when competing against other cisgender girls all the time, and I think the question … is whether it’s an unfair advantage because a transgender girl participated,” Block said.

“And if there is no sex-based biological distinction there, then I think it’s an unfortunate situation.But I think it’s the unfortunate situation that comes with having a zero-sum game, not with inherent unfairness.”

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At one point, Block, referring to trans athletes like Pepper-Jackson, argued, “There’s a group of people who are assigned male at birth, for who being placed on the boy’s team is harmful.”

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Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.