The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today, Wednesday, in an appeal that originated from a Tennessee law banning transgender-related medical treatments on minors.
The case, U.S. v Skrmetti, was brought by the Biden administration to challenge Tennessee’s law, Senate Bill 1. The bill, enacted last year, prohibits doctors from performing surgery or prescribing hormone blockers and hormone therapy on transgender youths.
The pending ruling, which will come next year, is a high-stakes decision that will impact not just Tennessee but more than 20 other states that have enacted similar laws.
Beyond an argument over who gets hormone treatments, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti says the equal protection argument from the U.S. Department of Justice could impact much more than hospitals depending on how the nine justices rule in the case.
"If the government's theory holds true," Skrmetti states in his legal brief, "men who identify as women could claim constitutionally based access to women's restrooms, women's locker rooms, and women's sports."
Tenn. has right to decide 'protection of children'
Ed Trent, attorney for the American College of Pediatricians, tells AFN he filed a court brief defending Tennessee’s law. Directly addressing the issue of mental health, the brief urges the justices to review the medical science that says children don’t need to undergo the radical medical procedures to overcome their gender confusion, which is referred to as “gender dysphoria” by the American Psychological Association.
“It’s our hope that they certainly will uphold a state's right to determine that certain dangerous medical procedures are not appropriate,” Trent says, “and particularly when it comes to the protection of children who are vulnerable to begin with.”
A second attorney who penned a court brief on behalf of the State of Tennessee is Abraham Hamilton III, general counsel for the Mississippi-based American Family Association.
“If the Supreme Court were to rule that the state of Tennessee could not protect its minors from gender mutilation surgeries and transgender chemical castrations,” Hamilton warns, “then no state would be able to do so."
Tennessee’s legislators became involved, Hamilton says, after learning Vanderbilt University Medical Center was performing transgender treatments on children.
“The state said nothing about adults who want to pursue those things, but in terms of minors, they will not let this happen,” the AFA attorney says.
Appeals court reversed case, upheld law
On the other side, the legal argument from the Biden administration is transgender youths seeking medical care are being treated unfairly in violation of the 14th Amendment and its Equal Protection Clause, according to the Scotus Blog website.
A federal court agreed with that Equal Protection argument, and blocked the state law, but a federal appeals court reversed that order and upheld the law.
The original lawsuit in Tennessee began with parents of transgender children but the Biden administration joined the lawsuit under the pretext of protecting 14th Amendment rights.
The suing parents will be represented before the Supreme Court justices by Chase Strangio, a transgender ACLU attorney who identifies as a man.
Strangio has argued previous high-profile cases before, including President Trump’s ban on transgender military service members.
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
