JayCee Cooper’s case against USA Powerlifting seems to me to represent the reductio ad absurdum of the woke trans madness, at least in its legal manifestation. Cooper is a biological male who claims that USA Powerlifting has discriminated against him by not allowing him to compete as a woman.
Are you kidding me? Physical strength lies at the core of weightlifting. Men are stronger than women. Treating men as women destroys the competition. It is absurd.
Ramsey County District Judge Patrick Diamond disagrees. He has held that USA Powerlifting mistreated Cooper under the terms of the Minnesota Human Rights Act. All that remains to be determined are damages and the scope of the injunctive relief to which Cooper may be entitled.
USA Powerlifting has filed an interlocutory appeal of Judge Diamond’s determination of liability under the MHRA. The appeals is pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
USA Powerlifting has also sought a stay of Judge Diamond’s ruling. At an April 11 hearing in St. Paul, however, Judge Diamond denied the stay and ordered USA Powerlifting to shut down. Not even Cooper had sought this “relief.”
This is the update USA Powerlifting posted on its site this past Saturday:
As many of you know, USA Powerlifting is involved in litigation in Minnesota involving the appropriate and fair inclusion of transgender athletes. The judge, Patrick Diamond, has ordered us to cease doing business in Minnesota despite the plaintiff NOT requesting this. The judge acted solely on his own, and consistent with his prior stance in advocating for the plaintiff’s position. We believe the judge has misinterpreted Minnesota law in this regard and exceeded his authority in terms of the conduct of our service to our members. We will appeal this highly unusual ruling. However, while these proceedings play out, we are ordered to suspend competitions in Minnesota and cease selling memberships to Minnesota residents. We are investigating relocating Midwest Regionals and further information will be forthcoming.
I posted the update here on Sunday. We heard about it from a long-time Power Line reader who was training for an August competition. If you go to the public filings in the case on the Minnesota Court Records Online site, however, you won’t find Judge Diamond’s order. Where is it?
USA Powerlifting is represented by Twin Cities attorneys Ansis Viksnins, Mark Carpenter, and Mary Cate Cicero pf Monroe Moxness Berg. I know Ansis and Mark from my days as a practicing lawyer. I called Ansis to ask him where the shutdown order was yesterday.
Ansis explained that Judge Diamond issued the order orally at the April 11 hearing. According to Ansis, Judge Diamond stated he would file a written order “within a couple of weeks, whatever that means.” Ansis intends to ask the Court of Appeals to enter a stay that would obviate the shutdown order as soon as Judge Diamond gets around to it. As of this morning, the order has yet to be filed. Judge Diamond’s failure to file his written death penalty order is ridiculous, if not abusive.
I believe that our coverage of Judge Diamond’s shutdown order is a Power Line exclusive. We will stay on the case, but it deserves attention well beyond what we can bring to it.
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