The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether a Tennessee law banning certain medical procedures on transgender minors is unconstitutional.
The move means that for the first time the court will hear arguments on medical issues for transgender youth.
The Biden administration had urged the Supreme Court to consider the case United States v. Scrummetti, arguing that the bill would make it illegal to treat young people for gender dysphoria and “words that prohibition in explicitly gender-based language.”
In the government’s court petition, Attorney General Elizabeth B. Preloger wrote that while the law bans transgender medical treatment, “the same treatments remain entirely unrestricted when prescribed for other purposes.”
Federal courts are divided over a law aimed at blocking transitional care, and pressure is growing for the Supreme Court to step in. The justices have been holding weekly closed-door sessions to consider whether to hear the appeal but have repeatedly postponed making a decision.
The move comes as states across the country seek to restrict transgender rights. Conservative lawmakers have prioritized bills covering gender transition care in recent years, and at least 20 Republican-led states have enacted measures to restrict minors’ access to such medical care.
It’s also part of a broader legislative effort aimed at regulating other parts of life, including laws about which bathrooms students and others can use and which sports teams they can play on.
This spring, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed Idaho to enforce a state ban restricting medical procedures for transgender youth. Passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature, the law makes it a felony for doctors to perform any transgender medical procedures on minors, including hormone treatments.
The case, which reached the Supreme Court as an emergency petition, appeared to be divided largely along ideological lines, with the court’s liberal wing voting in dissent.
Along with Idaho, the justices were also asked to weigh in on bills in Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Tennessee bill would prohibit health care providers from providing transitional care, including puberty-suppressing drugs and hormone treatments, to minors.
The Kentucky law, known as SB 150, would prohibit doctors from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing puberty-suppressing drugs or hormone therapy on anyone under the age of 18.
In June 2023, federal judges in both states, in separate rulings, temporarily blocked the law just days before key parts of it were set to go into effect.
Shortly thereafter, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision and reinstated the ban. The Kentucky and Tennessee plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court.
