SCOTUS Allows GOP War on Trans Kids to Continue

The court ruled in US v. Skrmetti that Tennessee’s restrictions on hormones, puberty blockers, or other care can stand, arguing that the law “is not subject to heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” In her dissent for the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision “authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them. Because there is no constitutional justification for that result, I dissent.” She read her dissent aloud from the bench on Wednesday; in lieu of the traditional “respectfully” she wrote “In sadness, I dissent.”

More than 20 other states have enacted similar laws to Tennessee’s. The condemnations from legal groups as well as trans rights groups rolled in on Wednesday. “This is a heartbreaking ruling, making it more difficult for transgender youth to escape the danger and trauma of being denied their ability to live and thrive,” said Sasha Buchert, Counsel and Director of the Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal. “Today’s ruling is a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution,” added Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

The clear discriminatory nature of the ban just doesn’t seem to matter to an essentially lawless SCOTUS. “At the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment is the principle that the law must protect all of us equally, and we are saddened to see the Supreme Court deny this protection to transgender youth,” said Sam Spital, Associate Director Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, which filed an amicus brief in the case. California attorney general Rob Bonta, who also filed such a brief, agreed: “Across the nation, we’ve seen a rise in hate-fueled violence and intimidation against our LGBTQ+ community, and laws such as Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 only serve to exacerbate these conditions by blatantly discriminating against transgender youth and denying them access to critical life-saving care.”