Strategic litigation has always been one of the most powerful tools to defend fundamental freedoms. By taking the right cases and securing precedent-setting wins, lawyers can change not only the law, but also the culture. At the Human Rights Law Alliance, this is our core mission.

We defend ordinary Australians whose freedoms are under attack, and in doing so, we seek to achieve generational wins that will safeguard those freedoms for years to come.

Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is at the forefront of this battle in America. One of their current cases involves women’s sport in Idaho.

Five years ago, a male athlete who identifies as transgender sued the state of Idaho to compete in women’s competitions. He won his first two cases, but Idaho appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court agreed to hear the case – an important step, as a case like this could produce a nationwide ruling affirming the right of women to fair competition.

Now, however, the athlete and his lawyers at ACLU are attempting to back out, asking the Court to declare the case “moot” and to reverse the lower court victories they had previously won. After years of fighting to play in women’s sport, they appear fearful of a decisive ruling that would go against their transgender ideology and secure protections for women across the country.

ADF is urging the Supreme Court not to let this happen and has described the ACLU’s action as a “desperate, bad-faith move”. The case deserves to be heard, because the rights of women and girls in sport hang in the balance.

This same fight is playing out in Australia. Just last month, Kirralie Smith lost her appeal in a case involving women’s spaces. In another matter, the “Tickle v Giggle” case has tested the right of women to create spaces for themselves without being forced to include men who identify as women.

HRLA represents women like Jasmine Sussex and Dr Jillian Spencer – professionals who have been punished for defending the truth about sex and for standing up for women’s spaces. These cases are about far more than individual employment disputes. They are about protecting women and children and whether Australians still have the freedom to speak the truth on these issues.

Strategic litigation works. It has the power to create cultural tipping points. Just as ADF in America is seeking to secure a ruling that will protect women’s sport for generations, HRLA is pursuing cases that will establish the same principles here in Australia and protect the right of people of faith to speak truthfully.

The stakes could not be higher. Unless these freedoms are defended, they will be lost. But with the right cases, argued well, and taken all the way through the courts, we can turn the tide.