Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee’s Ban On Transgender Drugs For Children

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting transgender drugs and surgeries for children, a major win for conservative activists and parent groups.

The court ruled 6-3 in United States v. Skrmetti that Tennessee’s law does not violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti defended the law before the High Court in December, saying it was a matter of “protecting kids from the consequences of decisions that they cannot fully understand.”

Tennessee lawmakers were inspired to introduce and pass the law following Daily Wire host Matt Walsh’s explosive investigation into Vanderbilt University’s gender clinic.

Tennessee’s law blocks all transgender medical treatments on children, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. Doctors who offer these treatments risk losing their medical licenses and paying a $25,000 fine. The law also gives children and their families the right to sue if they were harmed by these treatments.

The plaintiffs in the Tennessee case, which include trans-identifying teens and their families, claimed the state’s ban violates the 14th Amendment, which requires that everyone is treated equally under the law, by preventing them from accessing medical treatments that are available to others. They also claimed the ban violates parental rights to make health care decisions for their children.

The law was immediately challenged when it took effect in July, 2023. A Nashville federal district judge blocked the law that same month, but a week later, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals combined the Tennessee case with a similar case out of Kentucky and ruled in favor of both bans.

The Biden administration joined the lawsuit against Tennessee and urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying the court’s opinion was “urgently needed” since the confusion among federal courts had resulted in “profound uncertainty.”

Federal appeals courts have been divided in recent years on whether state bans on these transgender medical interventions for children are unconstitutional.

This is only the second time the Supreme Court has weighed in on this white-hot culture war issue, having previously avoided many opportunities to get involved.

In April of last year, the court allowed Idaho to enforce its ban on transgender medical interventions for minors except for the two teenagers who sued over the law.

Thursday’s ruling is expected to have broad implications for the other state bans on the same transgender medical interventions for minors. More than 20 states with Republican-led legislatures have similar bans.

Both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density and cause sexual dysfunction, voice damage, and infertility, among other issues. Cross-sex hormones can cause infertility, deadly blood clots, heart attacks, increased risk of both breast and ovarian cancers, liver dysfunction, worsening psychological illness, and other serious conditions.

Gender surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, and double mastectomy are irreversible and often come with serious complications.

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