The Supreme Court has announced it plans to weigh in on a pivotal dispute over transgender rights, agreeing to review the constitutionality of Tennessee’s law that prohibits ‘gender-affirming’ care for minors.
Despite previously sidestepping cases related to transgender protections, the high court made the decision after being pushed by the Biden administration to take up the matter, a move met with mixed feelings.
The battle over whether Tennessee’s law unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of sex is set to occur during the court’s next annual term, with oral arguments likely scheduled towards the end of the year.
The outcome of the court’s decision is expected to have a ripple effect on laws enacted in Tennessee and other Republican-led states. Close to half of the country has implemented bans on gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, impacting an estimated 100,000 trans adolescents and teenagers.
Notably, some laws also restrict care for transgender adults, and several conservative states have introduced bills this year aiming to outlaw gender-affirming medical care entirely.
Legal tussles mounted by transgender youths and their families have produced varied outcomes, with federal appeals courts divided on the constitutionality of laws banning gender-affirming care.
The Biden administration argued that the Supreme Court’s intervention was urgently needed, expressing concern over the uncertainty faced by transgender individuals due to conflicting court rulings.
A group of unnamed transgender minors and parents from both Tennessee and other states have challenged the law, with the Justice Department later stepping into the fray. A doctor is also a plaintiff in the case.
Following a federal district judge’s injunction blocking Tennessee’s law, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which consolidated the case with a similar one from Kentucky, reversed the decision, giving a win to the two Republican-led states.
The Supreme Court’s order grants the Justice Department’s request to review Tennessee’s law, focusing specifically on whether it violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The other plaintiffs had also sought the justices’ consideration on whether it violated due process protections.
Tennessee has urged the Supreme Court to stay out of the dispute and allow the law to stand, arguing that the matter should be left to percolate further in the appeals courts.
In other Supreme Court news, there are 6 major rulings that should be coming out this week. JD Rucker breaks it down: