Updated on September 11, 2025.
A federal court ruled on Tuesday that Mid Vermont Christian School should be allowed to play school sports — more than two years after the Quechee academy was banned from competition for forfeiting a game against a team with a transgender player.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s ruling overturns a lower court decision from last year that prohibits the school from competing while a lawsuit it filed plays out in court. The school has been banned from competing in all activities overseen by the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs interscholastic sports in the state, since March 2023.
The original lawsuit, brought in November 2023 by high-profile conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, alleges that the Vermont Principals’ Association, as well as state and school district officials, discriminated against the pre-K through 12 private Christian school because of its religious beliefs. Ryan Tucker, the organization’s senior counsel, characterized the Vermont Principals’ Association’s decision to ban the school from interscholastic play as a “blatant act of discrimination and hostility.”
Last June, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford denied the school’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have allowed it to compete in sports against other Vermont teams while the trial proceeded. Crawford wrote at the time that Mid Vermont’s expulsion was “not motivated by animus against their religious beliefs” but because the school violated state policy that allows transgender students to participate on the team of their choice. Several months later, the school appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the appeals court overturned Crawford’s decision, writing that the plaintiffs “are likely to succeed in showing that the [Vermont Principals’ Association’s] expulsion of Mid Vermont was not neutral because it displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs” and thus violated the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The appeals court also found that the plaintiffs were “likely to suffer irreparable harm” should Crawford’s decision stand.
The expulsion of the school from statewide competition could cause “dozens of students to lose opportunities to participate in VPA sports and to pursue athletic scholarships,” its decision states.
Furthermore, it continues, “there is a strong public interest in ensuring that students and schools do not lose out on valuable athletic opportunities by virtue of the government’s hostility to religion.”
The ruling grants Mid Vermont Christian’s request for “reinstatement to full membership in the VPA pending the resolution of this case.”
Alliance Defending Freedom heralded the decision as “a victory for religious schools.”
“For over two years, state officials have denied Mid Vermont Christian School a public benefit available to all other schools in Vermont just because it stood by the widely held, biblical belief that boys and girls are different,” David Courtman, the group’s senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation, said in a press release. “The 2nd Circuit was right to uphold constitutional protections by guaranteeing the school can fully participate while still adhering to its religious beliefs.”
In an email, Vermont Principals’ Association executive director Jay Nichols wrote that his organization and its officers “do not harbor any hostility toward religious viewpoints.” Officials at the organization will follow whatever guidance they receive from their attorney regarding Mid Vermont Christian School’s status, Nichols said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont called the decision “disappointing,” but noted that ruling “does not impact the rights of trans kids to participate fully in school activities — or the responsibilities of schools to ensure that all students have equitable access to educational and extracurricular opportunities.”
