The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a lawsuit challenging a Tennessee law banning the use of hormone therapy and puberty blockers in children under 18.
It marked the first time the nine justices currently on the Supreme Court have had an opportunity to weigh in on what has become a hot-button political topic across the United States.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 25 U.S. states have similar laws, some of which have been stalled by lawsuits.
3 tennessee transgender teentheir parents and a doctor who provides transgender care claim that in 2023 Tennessee ban Sex discrimination violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
The Biden administration and some of the nation’s leading medical groups have taken sides on the matter.
they claim Laws ban transgender people Individuals do not have access to medications and treatments that are available to other adolescents with medical needs. They also argued that the ban violated the rights of parents to provide necessary care for their children.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, told the justices in a brief filed last year that the Tennessee law and similar laws deny “appropriate and necessary” treatment , “causing profound harm to transgender youth and their families” who suffer from serious health conditions.
She argued there was uncertainty about the legality of the transgender care ban and that the Supreme Court should step in to resolve the dispute.
Tennessee attorneys counter that the transgender law reflects the will of the state’s elected lawmakers and addresses pressing public concerns.
“Tennessee, like many other states, takes action to ensure that minors do not receive these treatments until they can fully understand their lifelong consequences, or until the science evolves to the point where Tennessee may take a different view of their efficacy,” the state wrote.
Earlier this year, Supreme Court justices allowed Idaho’s ban on transgender care to go into effect, although they did not express an opinion on the constitutionality of the statute.
In 2020, a majority of the court’s six justices ruled that federal law prohibits discrimination against transgender employees. One of the justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has been replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, the more conservative appointee of Donald Trump ) replace.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in the U.S. v. Schemetti case in the fall and issue a ruling sometime next year
