The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law on Wednesday that bans sex changes for minors in the state, ruling that the prohibition on “certain medical treatments for transgender minors” is not discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court said, “Tennessee’s law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors is not subject to heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and satisfies rational basis review.”
According to Fox News, the case, “United States v. Skrmetti,” was originally brought against Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, which bans “all medical treatments intended to allow ‘a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex’ or to treat ‘purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.'”
Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 prevents healthcare providers from performing sex change procedures for minors with gender dysphoria and from using hormone and puberty blocker treatments to allow minors to transition to a different sex.
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In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion on Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “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. The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound.”
“The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best,” Roberts added. “Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us, Beach Communications, 508 U. S., at 313, but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday, conservative political commentator Matt Walsh released a statement saying that he was “grateful” to be a part of a “truly historic victory” after years of fighting against child sex change procedures.
“Three years ago, we launched our investigation into Vanderbilt’s child mutilation practices. We rallied in the state capital. Our lawmakers responded with a law banning child mutilation in the state,” Walsh tweeted. “Today the Supreme Court upheld our law, which means child mutilation can be banned anywhere and everywhere in the country. And should be.”
