The Trump administration has switched the federal government's position by stating Tennessee's law banning gender transition treatment for minors is lawful, reversing the position taken by the Biden administration.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in December, with many of the justices reportedly leaning toward upholding the 2023 law, known as SB1, which restricts pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for gender transition until a person turns 18. The Biden administration argued the law violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
"The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic," Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon wrote Friday in a letter to the clerk of the high court. "Accordingly, the new Administration would not have intervened to challenge SB1 — let alone sought this Court's review of the court of appeals' decision."
But Gannon wrote the case should not be dismissed because the justices' prompt resolution of the equal protection question "will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts."
The lawsuit now before the court was filed in 2023 by three transgender teens and their parents, who argued the law violates the Constitution because it prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat transgender teens but allows the use of the same treatments for other purposes, according to SCOTUSblog.
The Biden administration joined the case. And after a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the Tennessee law, the high court's justices granted only the Biden administration's petition for review — which focused on the equal protection question.
"A bipartisan coalition of Tennessee's elected lawmakers reviewed developing medical evidence and prohibited procedures that are life-altering and often irreversible," Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wrote Friday in a statement posted on his X account. "This common sense protection for minors parallels similar moves in half of the states, as well as a growing number of European countries.
"As the Deputy Solicitor General's letter explains, there remains a live controversy between the private plaintiffs and Tennessee that, consistent with the Supreme Court's prior practices and the Constitution, can and should be resolved. We look forward to receiving much-needed clarity when the Court issues its decision."
A joint statement by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and the Akin Gump law firm said, "This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination. We condemn this latest move and will continue to fight to vindicate the constitutional rights of all LGBTQ people."
Even after a presidential administration transitions between political parties, there has been a longstanding tradition that the federal government maintains the same legal position in cases before the Supreme Court on the merits, according to SCOTUSblog.
But during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, the U.S. solicitor general — the government's top attorney at the Supreme Court — departed from that practice, reversing course in several cases before the high court.
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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