The Department of Justice's Office for Civil Rights dismissed Monday a Biden administration-era lawsuit challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-transition procedures for minors, a ban that was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.
The Biden administration had joined the lawsuit filed by three transgender teens and their parents challenging the 2023 Tennessee law that bans puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors. But in a 6-3 decision on June 18, the Supreme Court upheld the law, rejecting the arguments that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and that it should be scrutinized using a more stringent standard than the one used by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
"Last month, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee state law protecting vulnerable children from genital mutilation and other so-called 'gender-affirming care,'" Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release. "That was the right decision, and this Department of Justice will no longer be in the business of attacking laws like Tennessee's that protect children."
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, ruled that Tennessee had a rational basis for enforcing the law as it "responds directly" to the "uncertainty" and "ongoing debate" about the "risks and benefits" associated with gender-transition procedures. After the ruling, the individual plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their complaint, but that did not end the DOJ's intervention in the case.
"In light of the United States' determination that SB1 [the Tennessee law] does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic, and the Supreme Court's decision ... the United States' participation in this matter no longer serves the 'statutory purpose' set forth in" Pasadena City Board of Education v. Spangler, the DOJ wrote in its notice of voluntary dismissal. "The United States' complaint in intervention is hereby dismissed with prejudice."
Tennessee is among 25 states and Puerto Rico with laws banning medical and surgical care for transgender youth, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a Colorado-based LGBTQ advocacy group. Laws in Montana and Arkansas are on hold because of preliminary injunctions. Arizona and New Hampshire ban gender-transition surgeries on minors.
"The United States today undid one of the injustices the Biden administration inflicted upon the country by dismissing a lawsuit against a Tennessee law that protects minors from invasive and mutilating procedures," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said in the news released. "The Justice Department will continue to fight to protect the health and welfare of our children and defend states that seek to ban these barbaric practices."
On Friday, Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., said because of "escalating legal and regulatory risks," it will no longer provide gender-transition care for patients. Effective Aug. 30, the hospital's providers will discontinue the "prescription of gender-affirming medications," according to a statement on the hospital's website. Mental health and other support services will still be available.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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