The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments and rule on whether a Tennessee law that bans “gender-affirming care” on minors – including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgeries – violates the Constitution.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB1/HB1 titled, ‘The Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act’ into law in March 2023, forbidding healthcare providers from performing or administering to underage children medical procedures or treatments for the purposes of enabling the child to identify with the opposite gender.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court will hear from transgender youth, their families, and their doctors in a challenge brought against Tennessee's ban prohibiting them from accessing gender-affirming medical care.
— ACLU (@ACLU) June 24, 2024
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in conjunction with its legal partners in the state, soon after filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee challenging the law on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 15-year-old transgender daughter, two other plaintiff families filing anonymously, and Memphis-based medical doctor Dr. Susan Lacy.
The Supreme Court agreed to review a previous ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in September, which reversed the district court’s preliminary injunction in L.W. v. Skrmetti and allowed the law to remain in effect.
That ruling was appealed by the U.S. Department of Justice which argues that the state law is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
The case will be argued in the Supreme Court’s next term, which begins in October.
A decision by the court is likely expected by the end of June 2025 on the following question:
Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,” Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1), violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti said he “looks forward” to fighting the case in the Supreme Court.
TN Attorney General Skrmetti issues a statement on SCOTUS granting cert in U.S. v. Skrmetti:
"We fought hard to defend Tennessee's law protecting kids from irreversible gender treatments and secured a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion from the Sixth Circuit. I look forward to…
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) June 24, 2024
“We fought hard to defend Tennessee’s law protecting kids from irreversible gender treatments and secured a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion from the Sixth Circuit. I look forward to finishing the fight in the United States Supreme Court. This case will bring much-needed clarity to whether the Constitution contains special protections for gender identity,” Skrmetti said.
The ACLU of Tennessee also commented on Monday’s announcement by the Supreme Court.
“The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this Court adhering to the facts, the Constitution, and its own modern precedent,” said Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
“These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law. They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms. We want transgender people and their families across the country to know we will spare nothing in our defense of you, your loved ones, and your right to decide whether to get this medical care,” Strangio added.
Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), the original sponsor of the bill signed into law by the governor, said he and Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) have “faith” in Skrmetti’s defense of the law.
“[Leader Johnson] and I carried this bill to protect minors from these barbaric medical procedures and we succeeded in the legislative process. We always knew liberals would try to use the court system to undo a strong law protecting kids, but I have faith the [Tennessee attorney general] will be successful defending HB1/SB1 at the SCOTUS,” Lamberth said.
Johnson added, “I’m proud of the work we’ve done to protect Tennessee children, and I’m grateful SCOTUS is taking up this important piece of legislation. It was an honor to sponsor this bill with [William Lamberth] and I’d do it a thousand times over.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “A.G. Jonathan Skrmetti” by A.G. Jonathan Skrmetti and “Supreme Court of the United States” by DavidbenjaminLat CC4.0
