The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth.
The law explicitly prohibits puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical procedures if they are prescribed for the purpose of gender-affirming care. The law leaves the same treatments unrestricted if they are prescribed for other purposes. The surgical procedures element of the law is not a part of this case. The justices will hear arguments in the case in the fall.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals previously upheld the Tennessee law, which was passed in 2023. Its majority held that despite the law’s explicit sex-based classifications, it does not discriminate based on sex under the Equal Protection Clause.
The ACLU, Lambda Legal and the Biden administration joined the plaintiffs in asking the high court to review the decision back in November. They, and the plaintiffs, argue the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Gender-affirming treatment is safe and effective. Studies have found that gender-affirming care can dramatically reduce suicide attempts and decrease rates of depression and anxiety. Professional organizations like the American Medical Association have repeatedly affirmed the necessity of gender-affirming care. In 2021, the AMA urged governors to oppose state bans, calling such efforts “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.”
Then, last year amid ongoing efforts to strip trans patients of access to care, the AMA committed to opposing any criminal and legal penalties against patients, families and providers affected. The organization announced its plans to work with legislators and regulators to oppose policies banning the care and collaborate with other organizations to educate the Federation of State Medical Boards on the importance of such care.
“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,” Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. “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.”
In a separate case, the high court allowed Idaho to mostly enforce a similar law earlier this year. More than 20 states have similar bans, many of which face lawsuits.