Sorority sisters plan to 'fight harder' after federal judge dismisses case against KKG
Aug. 30—CHEYENNE — One of the plaintiffs in a recently dismissed lawsuit challenging the admission of a transgender student into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Wyoming said she plans to continue the fight.
Six sorority sisters sued KKG in March after the sorority's first transgender woman, Artemis Langford, was admitted into the Wyoming chapter. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the lawsuit on Friday, ruling the court would not impede on the organization's freedom of expressive association.
Johnson left the case open for plaintiffs to refile, and advised them to "devote more than 6% of their complaint to their legal claims" and "not copy and paste their complaint," according to court documents.
Allison Coghan, a recent graduate of the University of Wyoming and former member of KKG, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night that she and the other plaintiffs "want to fight a lot harder." The sorority sisters who were plaintiffs in the case said they were "disappointed" by the judge's decision, but also not surprised.
"We started it, and we are going to finish it," Coghan said in the Fox News interview. "If anything, it has just made us want to fight a lot harder."
Cassie Craven, the plaintiffs' attorney, also made an appearance during the interview. Craven told Ingraham she was "prepared with a litany of additional legal filings."
"It's interesting we can't define 'women' in a court of law, but this isn't really about defining 'women,'" Craven said during the Fox News interview. "This is about erasing women."
The plaintiffs claimed "a 'woman' ... is not a transgender woman" in the lawsuit. However, Judge Johnson dismissed this claim.
"With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define 'woman' today," Johnson wrote.
Rachel Berkness, who was Langford's defense attorney in the case, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle an option to refile was pretty standard in a motion to dismiss. The case was "unique," Berkness said, because there was no cause of action asserted against Langford by the plaintiffs, nor did they ask for a specific relief.
"For the first time in my career, I am seeing somebody who is sued for no reason," Berkness said. "I have never seen that before."
The defense attorney said in order to survive a motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs have to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. In her opinion, nothing in the plaintiffs' allegations was worth refiling.
Neither Craven nor the plaintiffs' other attorney, John Knepper, returned calls from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle seeking comment.
Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.
