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President Donald Trump appointed attorney Justin Olson of Kroger Gardis & Regas, LLP to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
Olson is one of the attorneys helping lead a lawsuit funded by the Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) against the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, the Ivy League and the NCAA for their settlement involving transgender swimmer Leah Thomas. Olson is also listed as counsel in ICONS' lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference and Representatives San Jose State University regarding how they handled the situation involving trans volleyball player Blair Fleming.
Trump noted Olson's work on those cases in his candidacy announcement at Truth Social on Friday.
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“I am honored to nominate Justin Olson to serve as the trial judge. US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana! A magna cum laude graduate of Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, Justin previously served with distinction in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Indianapolis and as a litigator fought tirelessly to keep men out of women's sports,” Trump wrote.
“Hoosiers can trust Justin to always uphold the rule of law and vigorously defend their constitutional rights. Congratulations, Justin!”
Former University of Pennsylvania swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist filed the claim on February 5claiming that UPenn officials made them feel that their concerns about being teammates with Thomas were rooted in a “psychological problem” and that by allowing Thomas to compete, the institutions had “harmed them and violated federal law.”
Thomas, a biological male, previously competed for the University of Pennsylvania men's swimming team from 2017-2020 under the name Will Thomas. According to the lawsuit, women's swim team head coach Mike Schnur introduced Thomas to the women's swimmers during a team meeting in fall 2019 as their new teammate.
Each of the three plaintiffs claims the experience left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.”
The plaintiffs allege that the university administration imposed a pro-trans ideology on them throughout the process of recruiting Thomas to the team and in their locker room. The plaintiffs also claim that administrators warned them against speaking publicly about the situation.
“UPenn administrators told the women that if women publicly voiced their concerns about Thomas's participation on the women's team, the reputations of those who complained about Thomas' presence on the team would be tainted by transphobia for the rest of their lives, and they would likely never be able to find employment,” the lawsuit states.
Thomas won the NCAA Division I National Championship in the 500-yard freestyle, earned three All-America honors at NCAA Championshipand was named the top swimmer of the meet at the Ivy League Championships.
University of Pennsylvania agreed with the Trump administration in June to remove female swimmers' records from women's program records and adopt policies that exclude biological males from participating in women's sports.
Meanwhile, in Case SYUSUFormer women's volleyball team captain Brooke Slusser filed the lawsuit in November 2024 along with 10 other former and current Mountain West players. Slusser alleged that the Mountain West and SJSU hid information about Fleming's biological sex from her and other players while she shared locker rooms and hotel rooms with Fleming.
SJSU is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education regarding this situation.
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In addition to his work on these cases, Olson also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division for the Southern District of Indiana and also served as a Health Care Fraud Coordinator and a Civil Opioid Coordinator.
At Kroger Gardis, Olson represents and counsels clients in health care fraud and abuse matters, False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act compliance, responding to government subpoenas, civil investigative demands and information requests, and in conducting and resolving government investigations.
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