The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that upheld a Tennessee state law banning gender-affirming care for minors and overturned a lower court injunction that had prevented the law from going into effect. The Sixth Circuit decision also addressed a similar ban under Kentucky law, but the high Court did not accept a petition to review the Kentucky law. The case is U.S. v. Jonathan Skrmetti et al., Case Number 23-477, Supreme Court of the United States.
The plaintiffs allege that the gender-affirming care ban is subject to a heightened standard of review because it infringes on 14th Amendment protections for equal protection under the law and the right to due process for children and their parents. The Biden administration and the plaintiffs called on the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a split in the Circuits after the Sixth Circuit issued its decision. The Eighth Circuit previously held that a similar ban in Arkansas was entitled to heightened scrutiny and violated the equal protection clause.
The Sixth Circuit cautioned that federal courts typically should defer to state policymaking, as state legislatures pass laws after “thoughtful debates” about how to manage treatment for gender dysphoria. The Court also largely based its ruling on the age of the patients affected by the ban, noting that laws that distinguish between adults and children are common and often reasonable. According to the Court, adults can still use drugs and surgery to transition from one gender to another, but children may not. Since the classification between adults and children is reasonable, the law is not subject to a heightened standard of review.
