The Supreme Court Will Review Tennessee’s Law Barring Puberty Blockers and Mutilation Surgery for Minors

Last March, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed a bill into law that bars doctors from mutilating minors or giving them puberty blockers. The law also restricts drag shows on public property or near schools.

Confused minors filed a lawsuit to stop enforcement. A lower court issued a preliminary injunction, and Tennessee appealed. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the injunction.

The court, which voted 2-1, said that gender dysphoria is a “relatively new diagnosis,” and it’s difficult to predict long-term consequences and abandon “age limits of any sort for these treatments.”

The court added: “That is precisely the kind of situation in which life-tenured judges construing a difficult-to-amend Constitution should be humble and careful about announcing new substantive due process or equal protection rights that limit accountable elected officials from sorting out these medical, social, and policy challenges.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Sixth Circuit’s decision. From Liberty Counsel:

The Justices will hear arguments in the new term with a decision no later than the end of June 2025. The Biden administration is asking the Justices to review a decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled Tennessee Senate Bill 1 was constitutional, which upheld a ban in the state on all procedures attempting to facilitate a minor to live inconsistently with the minor’s biological sex. The federal government argues the ban is sex-based discrimination and violates the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“The Constitution does not guarantee a right to harm children with experiments and irreversible procedures,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman. “The Sixth Circuit has rightly ruled that Tennessee and Kentucky are free to protect children from these horrible procedures and the U.S. Supreme Court has the chance to uphold these protections.”

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