The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the dispute over whether states can ban doctors from prescribing irreversible medications to minors for the purpose of gender transition.
Lawyers will present their arguments in the case of U.S. v. Skrmetti, a lawsuit brought by the Biden administration against Tennessee and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti over the state’s 2023 law, which blocks puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and other treatments to children under the age of 18.
Skrmetti says the law’s intent is “to protect children from irreversible, unproven medical procedures,” The Wall Street Journal reported. After a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district judge in Nashville in June 2023 delayed the law from going into effect, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati stayed the injunction a month later.
Now the closely watched case lies with the Supreme Court, which will rule on the case next summer.
Representing three Tennessee transgender youths, their parents, and a Memphis doctor is an openly transgender man, Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Presenting Tennessee’s case is state Solicitor General Matt Rice, who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas in 2019.
Strangio is expected to press the case that puberty blockers and hormones et al. are instrumental to the healthcare of minors suffering from gender dysphoria. Tennessee has argued that gender dysphoria “goes away on its own” for most minors and its law is there to protect them from medications that “irreversibly alter their bodies.”
“Tennessee, like many other states, acted to ensure that minors do not receive these treatments until they can fully understand the lifelong consequences or until the science is developed to the point that Tennessee might take a different view of their efficacy,” state attorneys wrote in court filings.
President-elect Donald Trump has called gender transition treatments “child abuse,” and he’s expected to pass a national ban on treatments for minors and withhold federal funds to hospitals that do.
According to CNN, 26 states have instituted bans on gender transition medications and surgeries to protect minors while another two states — New Hampshire and Arizona — have passed laws to block transition surgeries to minors. Arizona is also one of 17 states to enact shield laws ensuring access to minors.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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