The United States Supreme Court has handed down a landmark decision upholding a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, a ruling expected to ripple across the country amid fierce debate over transgender rights.
In a 6-3 decision released Wednesday, the Court sided with the conservative-led state law, rejecting arguments that the ban on hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and gender transition surgeries for individuals under 18 violated constitutional protections.
The case has been closely watched as it touches on one of the most heated issues in America’s ongoing culture wars. More than 20 Republican-led states have passed similar laws, and the high court’s decision is seen as pivotal in shaping future legal challenges to those bans.
"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," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the majority opinion.
"The Court's role is not 'to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic' (of the law) but only to ensure that the law does not violate equal protection guarantees," Roberts added.
"It does not. Questions regarding the law's policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process," he said.
Arguments in the case were heard by the Court in December, with the Biden administration’s Justice Department joining the challenge against Tennessee’s law. Opponents argued that the law singled out transgender minors for unequal treatment in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.
But with Republican President Donald Trump now in office, the federal stance has shifted. Just days after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order restricting gender transition procedures for individuals under 19. The order declared that the United States would no longer provide federal support for medical transitions for minors and pledged to end government funding for such treatments under programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and military health plans.
"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children," the executive order said. "This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation's history, and it must end."
During oral arguments, Tennessee Solicitor General Matthew Rice defended the law, saying it was designed to "protect minors from risky, unproven medical interventions" with "often irreversible and life altering consequences."
But opponents of the law said it stripped away necessary care for vulnerable youth. Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, represented three transgender adolescents, their families, and a Memphis-based doctor in the case.
"What they've done is impose a blunderbuss ban, overriding the very careful judgment of parents who love and care for their children and the doctors who have recommended the treatment," said Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court.
Although there is still no nationwide law banning gender-affirming care for minors, the Supreme Court’s ruling and Trump’s executive order have dramatically altered the legal and political landscape surrounding transgender rights in the United States.