Ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors will be reviewed by Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors. (Image from Shutterstock)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors.
At issue is whether a 2023 law known as Tennessee Senate Bill 1 violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, report Law.com, SCOTUSblog and a June 24 press release by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The law states that minors may not receive medical treatments allowing them “to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with” their sex assigned at birth, according to the cert petition filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Thus, for example, a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male can be prescribed testosterone to conform to a male gender identity, but a teenager assigned female at birth cannot,” the cert petition says.
The cert petition says the Tennessee law “is part of a wave of similar bans preventing transgender adolescents from obtaining medical care,” even when the transgender minor’s parents and physician agree on the treatment.
Transgender people often suffer from gender dysphoria characterized by distress between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth.
“Left untreated, gender dysphoria can result in severe physical and psychological harms,” the cert petition says.
The petition argues that courts should use heightened scrutiny when evaluating such laws because they rely on sex-based classifications and discriminate against transgender people.
Tennessee argues that the hormonal and surgical treatments for transgender youths “carry serious and potentially irreversible side effects, including infertility, diminished bone density, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular disease and cancer.”
The state says rational-basis review should be applied to the law, but no matter what standard of review is used, the law is constitutional.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati ruled in September 2023 that the law does not discriminate based on sex for purposes of the equal protection clause. The same court rejected a stay request and allowed Tennessee to enforce the law in July 2023.
The plaintiffs in United States v. Skrmetti are three transgender adolescents, their parents and a doctor who offers treatment for gender dysphoria. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
