A split Supreme Court on Monday approved Idaho’s extensive enforcement of a new law limiting gender-affirming care for children.
The verdict overturns the rulings of two lower federal courts that upheld an injunction against the law during its constitutionality litigation.
All six conservative members of the high court supported the ruling. The three liberal justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—indicated that they would have put the bill on hold.
“Normally, injunctions like these may not go any further than necessary to provide interim relief to the parties,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a statement agreeing with the court’s ruling. “In this case, however, the district court went much further, prohibiting a state from enforcing any aspect of its duly enacted law against anyone.”
The court did, however, allow the parents and two children who launched the complaint against the statute to continue receiving treatment during the dispute. Families and physicians believe the children’s search for puberty blockers and estrogen essential for mental wellness.
Jackson claimed in her dissent that the high court should not have intervened in such a high-profile case so early on, disturbing the legal status quo.
Jackson stated in his letter, “In my view, we should resist conscription into service when our involvement amounts to micromanaging the lower courts’ exercise of their discretionary authority in the midst of active litigation.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho issued a joint statement describing the verdict as an “awful result.”
“While the court’s ruling today importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state,” the statement said. “Today’s decision authorizes the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on, causing additional confusion and hardship. Nonetheless, today’s outcome strengthens our resolve to completely defeat this law in the courts, making Idaho a safer state in which to raise a family.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador delivered a statement following the court’s decision to authorize enforcement.
He said in a written statement, “The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that’s why I’m proud to defend Idaho’s law that ensures children are not subject to these life-altering drugs and procedures.” “People who suffer from gender dysphoria need love, support, and medical care based on biological facts. Denying the fact that boys and girls are fundamentally different harms our children. No one has the right to harm children, and I am grateful that the state has the authority and responsibility to protect them.
Gender-related discrimination and gender dysphoria frequently cause anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts and attempts in transgender youth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study revealing that gender-affirming hormone therapy enhances the mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers.
Major national medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and more than 20 others, all believe that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, useful, and medically essential.
