The Kappa Kappa Gamma lawsuit filed by six University of Wyoming chapter members over the sorority’s 2022 admission of a transgender member, Artemis Langford, has been dismissed twice by the same federal judge, most recently with prejudice on August 22, 2025. The plaintiffs have appealed to the Tenth Circuit, where briefing wrapped up in January 2026 and oral argument has not yet been scheduled. A separate lawsuit brought by expelled alumnae is stayed in federal court in Ohio. No court has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs at any point.
What the Members Alleged
On March 27, 2023, six members of the University of Wyoming chapter sued Kappa Kappa Gamma, its building company, the Fraternity Council president, and Langford in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming. The plaintiffs initially filed as Jane Does and were later identified as Hannah Holtmeier, Jaylyn Westenbroek, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar.
The complaint framed itself as a derivative action for breach of fiduciary duties. It alleged that the sorority broke its own bylaws by admitting Langford, breached housing contracts, and misled members about the membership process. The plaintiffs also alleged that chapter officers used an irregular voting procedure and pressured members to support Langford’s induction. The complaint included graphic accusations that Langford “voyeuristically” watched sorority members and had “a visible erection” while doing so.
Langford denied the voyeurism allegation. She told the Washington Post that “some parts were completely made up. Others were things I remember but in their version was twisted to look weird, gross, sexual.” Text messages later filed with the court from another sorority sister present during the alleged incident corroborated her denial.
Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Fraternity Council had issued a position statement in 2015 declaring that the organization is “composed of women and individuals who identify as women.” Members who objected to Langford’s induction said the national organization told them that if they disagreed, “their values were inconsistent with Kappa’s values and they should resign their membership.”
Why the Judge Dismissed the Case
On August 25, 2023, U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice. His reasoning rested on the First Amendment right of a private organization to determine its own membership, drawing directly on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.
Judge Johnson wrote that “whether excluding gay scoutmasters in Dale or including transgender women in Kappa, this Judge may not invade Kappa’s sacrosanct, associational right to engage in protected speech.” He found that nothing in Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bylaws required the exclusion of transgender women, that the organization had published materials clarifying its inclusive stance since 2015, and that the Fraternity Council had authority under the bylaws to interpret membership terms. The court declined to define “woman” itself, holding that its inquiry ended once it determined the sorority had the right to interpret its own governing documents.
The judge described the 72-page complaint as “well-researched, yet meandering,” noting that only about six percent addressed actual legal claims. He gave the plaintiffs guidance on amending.
The First Appeal Went Nowhere
The plaintiffs appealed to the Tenth Circuit. On June 12, 2024, a three-judge panel dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Because the district court had dismissed the case without prejudice and invited an amended complaint, the order was not a final, appealable judgment. Writing for the panel, Judge Carolyn McHugh told the plaintiffs they could either amend their complaint or ask the district court to convert the dismissal into a final order.
For nearly a year, the plaintiffs did neither. In January 2025, they told the court they had no set plan to proceed. Kappa Kappa Gamma then asked the court to set a deadline or convert the earlier dismissal into a final judgment. On May 9, 2025, Judge Johnson ordered the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint within 30 days or the dismissal would automatically become a dismissal on the merits. They complied and filed a second amended complaint on June 12, 2025.
The Second Dismissal, With Prejudice
Judge Johnson dismissed the amended complaint with prejudice on August 22, 2025. The same claims can no longer be refiled in his court. He addressed each argument in the revised complaint:
- On the derivative claims that the Fraternity Council breached its fiduciary duties, the court found the plaintiffs had not shown the council was “conflicted or otherwise incapable of exercising reasonable business judgment.” Under Ohio law, where the sorority is incorporated, the council is presumed to have acted in good faith, and there was no evidence of fraud, collusion, or concealment.
- On the voting-irregularity claims from Langford’s induction, the court dismissed for failure to satisfy the “demand futility” requirement. The plaintiffs had not given the organization formal notice of those specific procedural grievances before suing.
- On breach of contract and fraudulent inducement, the court found that neither the governing documents nor the bylaws contained a promise of a single-sex organization, and the plaintiffs identified no false representation. The court also held that plaintiffs had not shown sufficient damages to maintain federal jurisdiction over the contract claims tied to voting.
Judge Johnson reiterated that the sorority’s documents define women by gender rather than biological sex, that the organization had been transparent about that position since 2015, and that the court was not authorized to override a private organization’s internal decisions. “In short, we are required to leave Kappa alone,” he wrote. He added that dissatisfied members had an internal remedy: advocating at the organization’s biennial conventions for a bylaw amendment defining “woman” as they wished.
The Pending Tenth Circuit Appeal
The plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal on September 18, 2025. The case is docketed at the Tenth Circuit as No. 25-8058, Holtmeier v. Kappa Kappa Gamma. Briefing closed on January 16, 2026, with the appellants’ reply brief. The appellants have requested oral argument. The court had not scheduled it as of early 2026.
Amicus briefs supporting the plaintiffs came from Women’s Declaration International, the Women’s Liberation Front, and True Blue Sapphires, a group founded in 2024 by Kappa alumnae. The National Panhellenic Conference filed a brief supporting Kappa Kappa Gamma.
The Separate Alumnae Lawsuit
In October 2023, the sorority expelled two longtime members, Patsy Levang, a former national foundation president, and Cheryl Tuck-Smith. Both had been members for 50 years and had publicly supported the Wyoming plaintiffs. The sorority cited “multiple violations” of its bylaws, saying the women had used private Kappa email lists to solicit donations for the Wyoming lawsuit, spoken to media without authorization, and violated the “Human Dignity Policy” by characterizing Langford as a “sexual predator.”
In January 2024, Levang and Tuck-Smith, joined by Susan Jennings, Margo Knorr, Karen Pope, and Ann Witt, sued the sorority in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, where Kappa Kappa Gamma is headquartered. The case, Levang v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity (2:24-cv-00316), alleges wrongful termination, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, defamation, and violations of Ohio’s free speech laws. The plaintiffs seek reinstatement and removal of the current national leadership. The complaint also alleges the sorority “fast-tracked” Tracy Nadzieja, a transgender alumna initiate, into a district director role without disclosing her gender identity, and that she was later a candidate in an April 2024 leadership election.
The Ohio case took a strange procedural path. In December 2024, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson transferred it to the District of Wyoming under the “first-to-file rule,” calling the two cases “duplicative.” The plaintiffs sought a writ of mandamus from the Sixth Circuit. On October 3, 2025, the Sixth Circuit granted the petition, holding that the transfer was unauthorized because it bypassed 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), which only permits transfers to districts where the action “might have been brought.” The defendants did not dispute that Wyoming lacked personal jurisdiction over them in the Levang case, so the transfer was improper. The Sixth Circuit called the judge-made first-to-file doctrine insufficient to override the statute and directed the Ohio court to bring the case back.
Judge Watson ordered the retransfer on January 13, 2026, and the case returned to the Southern District of Ohio on January 23, 2026. On February 3, 2026, Judge Watson stayed the proceedings. The case was reassigned to Magistrate Judge S. Courter Shimeall in March 2026. No future court dates have been publicly scheduled.
Who Is Representing the Parties
Both plaintiff groups are represented by the Independent Women’s Law Center, the legal arm of the Independent Women’s Forum. May Mailman, the center’s director, is lead counsel across both cases. Gene Schaerr joined the appellate team for the Wyoming case. Kappa Kappa Gamma is represented by Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, with Natalie McLaughlin as lead counsel in the appellate proceedings.