This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit that focuses on the Mountain West Conference's inclusion of a man on a women's volleyball team say they want the judge hearing the dispute removed from the case for his bias.

The judge preliminarily had ordered the women plaintiffs, three University of Wyoming volleyball players and a handful of other women, to "call a female-identifying transgender person 'she.'"

That ruling from U.S. District Judge Kato Crews shows his bias, and that he's already decided the case, the plaintiffs charge.

A report in the Cowboy State Daily explains the plaintiffs are challenging a decision by the Mountain West Conference and San Jose State to have a man on the SJSU women's volleyball team.

"Blaire Fleming's inclusion on the SJSU team prompted teams to boycott and forfeit games with the Spartans and ended with SJSU taking second place at the conference tournament," the report explained.

The lawsuit charges that the transgender agenda activists in the school and conference violated Title IX which forbids sex discrimination and also the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, William Bock III, told the judge regarding the order to refer to the man as "she," that, "This case concerns whether Blaire Fleming is a man or a woman."

The lawyer charged, "An impartial forum cannot exist where the court has so forcefully signaled the court's personal views on sex and gender identity that the court is willing to use its contempt power to enforce those views."

It was a rule the judge created for his own courtroom that commanded people "to use others' preferred pronouns or risk being charged with contempt," the court filing says.

Crews previously has used the incorrect "she" and "her" references to cite Fleming, and the plaintiffs motion points out that that decision, especially requiring others to follow that arbitrarily ideology, indicates "Crews must have made up his mind about the key issue in the case."

The rule, Bock charges, violates free speech rights and is a prior restraint on speech, and Bock noted while the judge may want a courtroom where all feel "welcome and respected," that's not enough to correct its violation of the First Amendment.

Support from leftists for Crews is well-established. He was recommended by Democrats Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and nominated by Joe Biden.

He undermined his own qualifications during his nominating hearing when Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked him to define a Brady motion, a common tenet in criminal law, and he was unable to do so. He was confirmed over almost unanimous Republican opposition.

That precedent from the Supreme Court requires prosecutors to turn over evidence favorable to a defendant.

He earlier refused to provide relief to female volleyball players who had protested the presence of a male on the San Jose team.