The Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s law banning child sex change procedures on Wednesday.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court held that Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection clause.
“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,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound. The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements.”
“Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process,” Roberts continued.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“[The majority] also authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them,” Sotomayor wrote.
Sotomayor wrote that those searching for evidence of transgender discrimination “need look no further than the present,” referencing several policies implemented by the Trump administration.
“The Federal Government, for example, has started expelling transgender servicemembers from the military and threatening to withdraw funding from schools and nonprofits that espouse support for transgender individuals,” she wrote.
Tennessee passed its law, which restricts minors from receiving medical treatments intended to help them live as an identity “inconsistent” with their sex, in 2023. The Biden administration challenged the law as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) changed its position on the case in February but urged the Supreme Court to move forward with issuing a ruling.
Trump signed an executive order in January cutting federal funding for child sex changes, where he called the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) “junk science” and banned federal agencies from citing its guidance. The Biden administration relied on WPATH standards in its briefs filed before the court.
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