The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a petition for divided argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti, the federal challenge to Tennessee’s law prohibiting doctors from prescribing treatments for gender dysphoria to transgender youth.
The court previously agreed in June to take up the case, as well as its companion case, L.W. v. Skrmetti, during the 2024-2025 court session.
The outcome of the case will likely determine the fate of similar laws in 23 other states, where Republican lawmakers have sought to criminalize the provision of gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers or hormones, to transgender youth to help them transition and assuage their feelings of gender dysphoria.
Two other states — Arizona and New Hampshire — have only banned surgical interventions on minors. Oral arguments in the case have been set for December 4, 2024.
A federal judge initially blocked the law from taking effect, but Tennessee appealed the ruling and asked that it be reversed. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently lifted that injunction, thereby allowing the law to take effect. A few months later, the 6th Circuit rejected a separate request seeking to block enforcement of the law.
The Justice Department intervened, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 6th Circuit’s rationale for the decision, in hopes of reversing it.
The plaintiffs in the original L.W. v. Skrmetti lawsuit challenging the ban — three families with transgender children and a Memphis-based doctor — are being represented by a coalition of legal organizations and firms, including Lambda Legal, the AmericanCivilLibertiesUnion, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs recently petitioned the court for divided argument, enabling them to split time with the U.S. Department of Justice in arguing for the ban to be overturned. On October 21, the court granted that request.
As a result, Chase Strangio, the co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, will now appear before the high court to argue for overturning the Tennessee ban — and others like it — on behalf of his clients, with those arguments becoming part of the case’s official record.
Strangio’s appearance will make him the first out transgender person to argue a case before the prestigious legal body.
Strangio is the leading U.S. legal expert on transgender rights, ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang told Reuters.
“He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion,” Wang said.
The U.S. State Department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to come to the U.S. for sports competitions.
It is also ordering permanent visa bans against transgender people whose gender marker on their application doesn't match their assigned sex at birth.
A State Department cable obtained by The Guardian instructs visa officers to enforce a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the United States to refuse entry to any visa applicant who commits identity fraud or misrepresents who they are.
Unlike regular visa denials, anyone violating that section can be permanently refused entry to the United States, effectively constituting a lifelong ban.
President Donald Trump used his address to Congress on Tuesday, March 4, to attack transgender individuals, calling transgender identity a "lie" and railing against transgender athletes, gender-affirming care, and trans visibility in the military and more broadly within society.
At one point during the speech, Trump switched from speaking about a child who was diagnosed with cancer to claim his administration was protecting children from "toxic ideologies" in schools.
He brought up the story of January Littlejohn, a Florida anti-transgender activist who sued the Leon County School District in Tallahassee, Flordia, in 2021, alleging that her child's school had discussed restrooms and name change requests with the child, assisting her in "socially transitioning" without informing Littlejohn or her husband of their efforts.
A federal judge issued a nationwide order blocking a pair of executive orders from President Donald Trump seeking to criminalize the provision of gender-affirming health care to transgender youth.
U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson, of the District of Maryland, granted a preliminary injunction to the families of several transgender young adults and adolescents whose access to gender-affirming care was disrupted by Trump's orders. Those families are joined by the pro-LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National and GLMA, the country's largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals.
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