US Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Law Protecting Kids From Transgender Mutilation

On June 18, the United States Supreme Court issued a historic 6-3 decision in United States v. Skrmetti, upholding Tennessee’s law banning the “transgender” mutilation of minors. The ruling is a monumental win for children, families and commonsense policy making.

The decision affirms the state’s authority to protect minors from dangerous and experimental transgender medical procedures. It also rejects the argument that children have a constitutional right to access medical interventions like opposite-sex hormones and surgery. The Court’s decision sets significant legal precedent in favor of state sovereignty and the democratic policy making process to determine the controversial issues of the day.

As previously reported by the Daily Citizen,  Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty-blocking drugs and opposite-sex hormones or performing surgeries to “transition” a minor. The ACLU and LGBT activists challenged the law, claiming that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution because it discriminated on the basis of sex.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the Supreme Court’s majority opinion and was joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. Justice Alito joined the majority opinion in part.

Roberts explained that the law does not discriminate against transgender-identified individuals because it applies neutrally to all individuals on the basis of age and medical purpose. The majority applied rational basis review, the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny, because classifying by age and medical purpose does not require a higher level of legal scrutiny. Based on a rational basis review, the Court concluded that Tennessee has a legitimate interest in protecting children from unproven and potentially harmful medical treatments and surgeries.

The majority also opined that it’s not the role of the Court to settle ongoing debates about transgender medical interventions for minors. Roberts wrote:

This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. … The Court’s role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us, but only to ensure that the law does not violate equal protection guarantees. … It does not. … Questions regarding the law’s policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.

Justice Thomas concurred separately and argued that gender identity should not be extended to sex-based equal protection doctrine and reiterated that rational basis review is “critical to safeguarding” a legitimate government interest.

Justice Barrett also filed a concurrence emphasizing that “courts must give legislatures flexibility to make policy in this area.”

Justice Alito concurred in part and underscored the right of states to regulate these matters and clarified his position that “transgender status does not qualify under our precedents as a suspect or ‘quasi-suspect’ class” that deserves a heightened constitutional review.

The Court’s ruling places the United States (at least in the 26 states that have enacted Help Not Harm laws) in line with several European countries — such as Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom — that have restricted the use of these treatments in minors due to safety concerns and a lack of long-term evidence.

Justices Sotomayor, Jackson and Kagan dissented from the majority, arguing that the law discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status and should have been reviewed with a heightened scrutiny. The dissent also maintained that to deny minors transgender medical intervention is a violation of constitutional protections.

The majority opinion is a decisive win for the idea that the people should resolve controversial medical and moral issues of the day by democratic processes rather than judicial fiat.

This ruling will set a strong precedent for the constitutionality of similar laws nationwide.

Focus on the Family applauds the Court’s decision. This ruling will help families protect their children from radical trans ideology that tries to deny the inherent goodness of God’s design for human sexuality and the value of male and female made in His image. 

Now is the time to call on Congress to pass a federal law to ban experimental trans interventions on minors nationwide. Every child in America deserves to be protected from reckless medical experimentation. Contact your senator and representative today.

Image from Getty.