The Biden administration argued that a Tennessee ban on puberty blockers and hormones unlawfully denied children and teens the same care afforded to others.
“The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic. Accordingly, the new Administration would not have intervened to challenge SB1 — let alone sought this Court’s review of the court of appeals’ decision,” Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon wrote in a Friday letter.
The Trump administration had been expected to change the federal government’s stance on the court case, but Gannon’s letter is notable in that it urges the Supreme Court to issue its decision even though the government has changed its opinion on the case.
During oral arguments, the court’s conservative majority appeared likely to uphold the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which would be lockstep with the federal government’s new stance.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, who are representing transgender teens and their families in the case, admonished the Trump administration for changing its view.
“These Tennesseans have had their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law violated by the state of Tennessee. This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination. We condemn this latest move and will continue to fight to vindicate the constitutional rights of all LGBTQ people,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Read more about it from The Hill's Zach Schonfeld.
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