U.S. Supreme Court Asked To Overturn Appeal Court Ruling On Tennessee’s Ban On Transgender Medical Procedures For Kids

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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

The U.S. Supreme Court was asked on Wednesday by a group of families and physicians to overturn an appeals court ruling and block a Tennessee law that bans gender transition medical procedures for children.

The law was passed by legislators this Spring and has been highly contested during a months-long legal battle. 

The group initially brought the lawsuit in April and was joined a few weeks later by the Department of Justice. They challenged the law, which was set to go in effect in July, which prohibits treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender reassignment surgery.

Children who were already taking restricted medications when the law was passed must stop the medication by March 2024.

The law makes an allowance for medical treatments and plastic surgery that are not for the purpose of gender reassignment. Attorneys have continued to argue that the legislation is a violation of the plaintiffs’ rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

If the Supreme Court chooses to the case, this would be the U.S. Supreme Court’s first consideration of restrictions on transgender medical procedures. 

Recent years have seen nearly two dozen other states pass laws that are similar to Tennessee’s ban on such procedures. Rulings from federal courts in those states have varied.

In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit maintained that Tennessee and Kentucky could continue to enforce their bans on gender reassignment, stating that the legislation does not discriminate on the basis of age or sex.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti stated at the time that the decision was a “big win for democracy.”

The September decision overturned a decision made in June by a federal judge in Tennessee.

At that time, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson placed a partial injunction on the law, stating that the medical evidence used to pass the legislation was slim and said that it was most likely unconstitutional to pass such a law.