Topline
The Supreme Court will weigh in on a Tennessee law that restricts gender-affirming care for minors, it said Monday—setting the stage for a potentially consequential ruling on transgender health care for minors as multiple states have imposed bans or limitations.
An exterior view of the Supreme Court on June 21, 2024 in Washington. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty ... [+]
Key Facts
The Tennessee law prohibits the administration of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for individuals under the age of 18 for the purpose of altering the gender they were assigned at birth.
The court will review a September appeals court decision that reversed a lower court ruling preventing the prohibitions in Tennessee, and a similar law in Kentucky, from taking effect, though the Supreme Court will only address the Tennessee restrictions.
The Tennessee law, enacted in 2023, allows health care providers who continue providing gender-affirming care to minors to be sued and potentially lose their licenses.
A group of transgender teens, their parents and doctors are among the plaintiffs who asked the court to review the ban in Tennessee, and the Biden administration joined them in challenging the appeals court ruling.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in the case this fall as part of its 2024-2025 term, which begins in October.
So far, the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the constitutionality of gender-affirming care for minors as more than two dozen states have taken steps to limit such treatments, prompting legal challenges against many of the restrictions.
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Crucial Quote
Tennessee’s law, and others like it, along with “the conflicting court decisions about their validity, are creating profound uncertainty for transgender adolescents and their families around the Nation—and inflicting particularly acute harms in Tennessee and other States where the laws have been allowed to take effect,” Justice Department Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in asking the Supreme Court to review the case.
Key Background
The Biden administration and those challenging the restrictions in Tennessee argue they violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by preventing transgender individuals from receiving medical care afforded to others. The law bans treatments for the purpose of “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or “treating purported discomfort of distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.” In addition to prohibiting puberty blockers and hormone therapy, the law also prevents gender-affirming surgical care for minors. District Judge Eli Richardson allowed the prohibition on surgical care to take effect last year, but temporarily barred the state from enforcing restrictions on the other two treatments, writing that the state must enact laws that do “not infringe on the rights conferred by the United States Constitution.” The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Richardson’s decision, arguing, in part, that the courts shouldn’t intervene in such new and hotly debated policy issues and that they should instead be decided by the state legislature. “This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments,” 6th Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote.
Big Number
25. That’s how many states, including South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia, have imposed bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Associated Press. At least a dozen other states, including New Jersey, New York and California, have implemented protections on such care. Courts have struck down restrictions in Arkansas and Florida.
Contra
A slate of major medical groups and organizations support the availability of gender-affirming care for minors and have spoken out against legislative restrictions, with the American Medical Association calling such legislative actions “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine” in a 2021 letter to governors urging them to oppose limitations on gender-affirming care for minors.
Tangent
The Supreme Court in April issued a ruling allowing Idaho to implement its ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The court did not weigh in on the legality of the law itself, but instead determined a lower court’s ruling that prevented the ban from taking effect was overly broad and should be lifted while litigation continued.
Further Reading
Tennessee Approves Bill Punishing Adults Who Help Minors Receive Gender-Affirming Care, Report Says (Forbes)
Supreme Court Allows Idaho’s Gender-Affirming Care Ban — For Now (Forbes)
Judge Rules Florida’s Ban On Gender-Affirming Medical Care Is Unconstitutional (Forbes)
