DOJ Ends Challenge To Tennessee’s Law Shielding Kids From Transgender Procedures

The Justice Department told the Supreme Court on Friday that it was dropping its challenge to Tennessee’s law shielding children from transgender medical procedures.

In a letter to the clerk of the Supreme Court, Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon said that the DOJ no longer took the position that Tennessee’s SB 1, which banned transgender medical procedures on minors, violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The court heard a challenge to the law in December from both the Biden administration and the ACLU. 

“Following the change in Administration, the Department of Justice has reconsidered the United States’ position in this case,” Gannon wrote. “The purpose of this letter is to notify the Court that the government’s previously stated views no longer represent the United States’ position.”

Tennessee’s law bans procedures like giving minors puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and performing surgeries like removing the breasts of girls who identify as boys. 

The law was temporarily blocked by a federal judge after it was passed in 2023 before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to take effect. 

“The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic. Accordingly, the new Administration would not have intervened to challenge SB1 — let alone sought this Court’s review of the court of appeals’ decision reversing the preliminary injunction against SB1,” Gannon wrote. 

While the DOJ’s challenge to the law may now be moot, the ACLU’s suit against it still stands. Additionally, the DOJ said that it is not seeking to dismiss the case, saying that a “prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts.”

After oral arguments on the case in December, the Supreme Court appears poised to rule in Tennessee’s favor. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, and Amy Coney Barrett all seemed skeptical of the claims made by the ACLU and the previous Biden administration. 

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti praised the DOJ for dropping its opposition and noted that the state also welcomed a decision from the court. 

“We commend President Trump for abandoning the previous administration’s effort to enshrine gender ideology into the Constitution and prevent the people’s elected officials from resolving these important and contentious issues,” Skrmetti said. “We look forward to receiving much-needed clarity when the Court issues its decision.”