Litigation
Court cases in the project's archive about laws and policies that affect transgender and other LGBTQ+ people. Each case page links its dockets, its court documents, its opinions and any oral arguments, with the originals on CourtListener. Charts show the cases by issue, year, court and place.
Also: a finding aid to experts who testified for the side defending the laws.
35 of 664 cases match.
| Case | Court | Level | Cir. | Year | Issue / type | Outcome | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 303 Creative LLC v. ElenisNo. 19-1413 | U.S. Supreme Court | U.S. Supreme Court | 2021 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | Adverse | 81 | |
| Anita Green v. Miss United States of America | 9th Cir. | Circuit | 9th Cir. | 2023 | Public accommodationsalso Speech & religious objections | Adverse | 3 |
| Bongo Productions, LLC v. Lawrence | M.D. Tenn. | District | 6th Cir. | 2022 | Public accommodationsalso Bathrooms & facilities, Speech & religious objections | Favorable | 63 |
| Carcaño v. McCrory | M.D.N.C. | District | 4th Cir. | 2021 | Bathrooms & facilitiesalso Schools & education, Public accommodations | Procedural no direction | 90 |
| Chelsey Nelson Photography LLC v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro GovernmentNo. 22-5884 | 6th Cir. | Circuit | 6th Cir. | 2022 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 8 | |
| Chelsey Nelson Photography LLC v. LouisvilleJefferson County Metro Government (k | W.D. Mich. | District | 6th Cir. | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 2 | ||
| Chris Herring Photography LLC v. Herring | E.D. Va. | District | 4th Cir. | 2020 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 3 | |
| Christian Healthcare Centers, Inc. v. NesselNo. 1:22-cv-00787 | W.D. Mich. | District | 6th Cir. | 2022 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Gender-affirming care, Public accommodations | 52 | |
| CHRO v. Edge FitnessClosed · Connecticut | Connecticut Supreme Court | State | 2021 | Public accommodationsalso Bathrooms & facilities | 1 | ||
| Committee of Five, Inc. v. SullivanNo. 1:25-cv-01668 | 10th Cir. | Circuit | 10th Cir. | 2025 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 28 | |
| Conforti v. St. Joseph’s Healthcare System | 2021 | Gender-affirming carealso Health coverage & benefits, Speech & religious objections, Public accommodations | 15 | ||||
| Covenant Weddings LLC v. Cuyahoga County, Ohio | N.D. Ohio | District | 6th Cir. | 2020 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 2 | |
| Defending Education v. SullivanNo. 1:25-cv-01572 | 10th Cir. | Circuit | 10th Cir. | 2025 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 43 | |
| Doe v. Montgomery County Board of ElectionsClosed · Maryland | Maryland Court of Appeals | State | 2008 | Public accommodationsalso Employment, Housing & shelters | 3 | ||
| Donna McGrath Robert Jinks, A/K/A Tanya Jinks, A/K/A Tanya Medina, and Norbert Lopez, A/K/A Tara Lopez v. Toys "R" Us, Inc. | 2nd Cir. | Circuit | 2nd Cir. | 2004 | Public accommodations | Procedural no direction | 3 |
| Doxa Enterprises v. SullivanNo. 26-1104 | 10th Cir. | Circuit | 10th Cir. | 2026 | Public accommodationsalso Speech & religious objections | 2 | |
| Emilee Carpenter, LLC v. JamesNo. 22-75 | 2nd Cir. | Circuit | 2nd Cir. | 2022 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 30 | |
| Freedom v. Chicago Womens Basketball Operations LLCNo. 1:26-cv-10686 | N.D. Ill. | District | 7th Cir. | 2026 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Athletics, Public accommodations | 2 | |
| Freeman v. Denny'sClosed · Maine | Androscoggin County Superior Court | State | 2009 | Bathrooms & facilitiesalso Public accommodations | 4 | ||
| Horizon Christian Fellowship v. Williamson | D. Mass. | District | 1st Cir. | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 1 | ||
| Iowa Civil Rights Commission Complaint on Behalf of Meagan TaylorClosed · Iowa | Iowa Civil Rights Commission | State agency | 2015 | Public accommodationsalso Policing & criminal law | 1 | ||
| King v. Sunrise Assisted LivingClosed · Maine | Maine Human Rights Commission | State agency | 2021 | Housing & sheltersalso Public accommodations | 2 | ||
| Lucas Rosa v. Park West Bank & Trust Co. | 1st Cir. | Circuit | 1st Cir. | 2000 | Public accommodations | Favorable | 1 |
| Masterpiece Cakeshop Incorporated v. ElenisNo. 1:18-cv-02074 | D. Colo. | District | 10th Cir. | 2018 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 36 | |
| Oliver v. The BarbershopClosed · California | Superior Court of California, San Bernardino County | State | 2016 | Public accommodations | 3 | ||
| Olympus Spa v. Armstrong | 9th Cir. | Circuit | 9th Cir. | 2025 | Public accommodationsalso Bathrooms & facilities, Speech & religious objections | Favorable | 15 |
| Rims Barber v. Phil Bryant | 5th Cir. | Circuit | 5th Cir. | 2017 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Family & parental rights, Public accommodations | Adverse | 2 |
| Robert Updegrove v. Jason Miyares | 4th Cir. | Circuit | 4th Cir. | 2021 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 8 | |
| Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish v. Dana Nessel | 6th Cir. | Circuit | 6th Cir. | 2023 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Employment, Public accommodations | 1 | |
| Scott v. CSL Plasma, Inc. | D. Minn. | District | 8th Cir. | 2016 | Public accommodations | Favorable | 6 |
| St. Joseph Parish St. Johns v. Dana Nessel | 6th Cir. | Circuit | 6th Cir. | 2024 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Schools & education, Employment, Public accommodations | Mixed | 10 |
| State of Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Agriculture | E.D. Tenn. | District | 6th Cir. | 2023 | Federal executive actionsalso Schools & education, Public accommodations | Favorable | 14 |
| The Downtown Soup Kitchen v. Municipality of Anchorage | 2022 | Housing & sheltersalso Speech & religious objections, Public accommodations | 45 | ||||
| Updegrove v. Herring | E.D. Va. | District | 4th Cir. | 2020 | Speech & religious objectionsalso Public accommodations | 27 | |
| Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma | 10th Cir. | Circuit | 10th Cir. | 2026 | Public accommodations | 18 |
35 cases
Each case has one main issue and may raise others (shown as “also”); the Issue filter finds a case by either. Choose a column heading to sort by it, and again to reverse the order. A blank cell means the archive has no entry for that case yet.
The outcome is this project's own coding of how a case turned out, made from the court's record; it is not the court's finding. How it is coded, and how to ask for a correction, is on the About page.
Litigation
Court cases about transgender and other LGBTQ+ people · federal & state courts
Cases tracked
| Case | Court | Level | Cir. | Year | Issue / type | Outcome | Docs |
|---|
Archive stats
Cases by issue
Every tracked case once, under its main issue, split by the coded direction of its final ruling (the same reading as "Reached a final ruling" below): favorable or adverse to the LGBTQ-rights claim, or mixed. The empty part of each bar is cases with no coded ruling at the trial, circuit or Supreme Court stage yet, which is most of them; it is not a claim that they have no outcome. Choose a bar to list its cases.
Reached a final ruling
The coded direction at the HIGHEST stage a case reached — trial-level, circuit-court or Supreme Court only. A preliminary-injunction ruling never counts as final, and a "procedural, no direction" or "unclear" coding is excluded rather than shown as an outcome.
Case duration
Filed to terminated, from real CourtListener docket dates, among cases where EVERY tracked docket has terminated (an open appellate docket alongside a closed district one is pending, not resolved). No stage-by-stage date exists in this corpus, so only this one span is shown; dates cover only the tracked-docket tier — see the coverage note below the numbers.
Cases by circuit
A real geographic map, states shaded by their circuit's case count relative to the busiest circuit (linear). The Federal Circuit has no state territory of its own (its jurisdiction is subject matter, not geography) and so never paints here, but still appears in the list and the table. Select a circuit below for its final-ruling mix.