Korean Christian women’s-only spa to ask SCOTUS to take up case after 9th circuit said they must admit trans males

On March 12, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the spa's petitions for a rehearing and an en banc vote. Olympus Spa attorney, Tracy Tribbett of the Pacific Justice Institute, said the spa will now turn to SCOTUS, arguing that the 2023 lower court's decision infringes on free speech, free exercise of religion, and freedom of association rights. The spa is owned by a Christian husband and wife.

"Based on our initial review of the seven separate opinions, we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will take an interest in the petition for review," Tribbett wrote in a statement to Lynnwood Times.

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Olympus Spa, with locations in Lynnwood and Tacoma, received a complaint in 2020 from the Washington State Human Rights Commission (WSHRC) after Haven Wilvich was denied entry to the spa. The government body cited violations of the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), which prohibits discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation.

In 2023, a US District Court judge found that Olympus Spa violated the state's discrimination laws through its written company policy that states only "biological women" are permitted to use the facility. The WSHRC ordered the spa to erase the term "biological women" from its website, undergo "inclusivity" training, and permit fully intact men into its female-only facilities. The spa then sued the WSHRC on First Amendment violations, arguing that the state's policy violated its constitutional rights to freedom of religion, speech, and right of association, according to the suit.

The Circuit Appeals Court ruled in May 2025 that Olympus Spa cannot sue the state on First Amendment grounds, upholding the lower court's decision requiring the spa to permit men into the facility. Judge Margaret McKewon, appointed by Bill Clinton, wrote in the opinion that "the spa's religious expression is only incidentally burdened." She added, "We are not unmindful of the concerns and beliefs raised by the spa...The spa may have other avenues to challenge the enforcement action. But whatever recourse it may have, that relief cannot come from the First Amendment."

Judge McKewon compared the spa's "discrimination" to racism during the civil rights era, stating that the spa's prohibition of trans-identifying males from the facility would be akin to white people banning black people from establishments. She stated, "It's not really 'biological women are welcome.' It means non-biological women are not welcome."

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Judge Kenneth Lee, appointed by President Donald Trump, issued a fiery dissent, accusing the state of weaponizing its anti-discrimination laws for political purposes. "Steeped in centuries-old tradition, Korean spas require their patrons to be fully naked, as they sit in communal saunas and undergo deep-tissue scrubbing of their entire bodies in an open area filled with other unclothed patrons. Given this intimate environment, Korean spas separate patrons as well as employees by their sex," Judge Lee wrote.

"The state of Washington, however, threatened prosecution against Olympus Spa, a female-only Korean spa, because it denied entry to a pre-operative transgender female - i.e., a biological male who identifies as female but has not undergone sex-reassignment surgery," he continued. "Now, under edict from the state, women - and even girls as young as 13 years old - must be nude alongside patrons with exposed male genitalia as they receive treatment. And female spa employees must provide full-body massages to naked preoperative transgender women with intact male sexual organs."

"This is not what Washington state law requires. While the WLAD forbids discrimination based on (among other things) sex and sexual orientation, its text and structure make clear that it does not cover transgender status. Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women's rights to strip women of protections. The women and girls of Washington state deserve better," Lee concluded.

Olympus Spa has repeatedly stated throughout the years that the court ruling has resulted in monetary damages, including a loss of income due to its female-only clientele's unwillingness to be nude in the same vicinity as men.