The U.S. Supreme Court had only one case slated for oral argument Wednesday morning, but it was a doozy.
With protesters chanting outside, the court heard arguments for two-and-a-half hours from attorneys for the state of Tennessee, the Department of Justice, and the ACLU in a challenge to the constitutionality of Tennessee’s ban on “gender-affirming” care for minors.
In U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Biden Justice Department and the ACLU argued that the state law violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment because it discriminates based on sex. To the contrary, the state of Tennessee and its attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, say the law restricts conduct based only on age (for those children under the age of 18) and how certain drugs are used (for so-called gender-affirming care).
Legal challenges to these types of laws are typically brought by parents who seek drugs, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and surgical intervention for their children who profess to identify with the opposite sex. They argue that laws like Tennessee’s violate two parts of the 14th Amendment—the due process clause, by depriving parents of the right to make medical decisions for their children, and the equal protection clause, by discriminating against their children based on sex.
President Joe Biden’s administration, rather than parents, brought this challenge, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected both arguments. Last year, the 8th Circuit struck down a similar Arkansas law, but only on equal protection grounds. […]
— Read More: www.dailysignal.com
