Conservative Supreme Court Justices Skeptical Of Challenge To Tennessee Law Banning Gender-Affirming Care For Transgender Minors

Advocates of transgender rights seeking to overturn a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors were not well received by Supreme Court conservatives on Wednesday.

The court was reviewing a lower court ruling to allow the state’s ban on hormone treatments and puberty blockers to remain in place.

Curiously, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch had nothing to say during the two-and-a-half-hour session.

Opponents of the Tennessee law used arguments from Gorsuch’s ruling in Bostock vs. Clayton County, stating that denying adolescents medicine based on their sex amounted to discrimination and needed justification from state officials.

If Gorsuch sides with the three liberals, one more vote will be needed to support the plaintiffs.

The case is being closely watched after 26 states have passed laws restricting gender-affirming care in recent years.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh seemed to support the view that the Tennessee law does not discriminate based on sex because it bans males and females from receiving drug therapies intended to transition to a different gender.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett seemed like she was leaning to vote the law was a form of sex discrimination. Barrett also questioned whether the state was depriving parents of the right to oversee their children’s medical care.

The first openly transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court was the American Civil Liberties Union’s Chase Strangio, who said transitioning is tied to sex, therefore making the law discriminatory based on sex.

Matthew Rice, who represented Tennessee, said the law prohibits treatments based on their use, not on the sex of patients getting them.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that this logic would also call into question many foundational equal protection cases.

Jackson and Roberts traded shots in the hearing, and the chief justice suggested that medical questions are too nuanced for courts to decide on.

Transgender rights became a central issue in the 2024 election.

Most major American medical associations support gender-affirming care for minors. Opponents of the care look to European countries that have rolled back some of their support for these procedures in places like the United Kingdom and Sweden.

In the U.S., more restrictions are expected as President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration is promising to reverse measures that have granted access to care for transgender people.