by WorldTribune Staff, June 18, 2025 Real World News
In a 6-3 decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on youth transgender surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone therapy.
U.S. Supreme Court / Wikimedia CommonsThe decision will carry a nationwide impact as 24 other states have enacted laws similar to Tennessee’s.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Tennessee’s law is not in violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment as it does not constitute a form of sex discrimination.
“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,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. “The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound,” he continued, but the “Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best.”
That task, he wrote, was best left to the legislature.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, said in a statement: “The common sense of Tennessee voters prevailed over judicial activism. A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee’s elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand.”
The Tennessee law, enacted in 2023, forbids prescription of puberty blockers, hormone therapy or other medical treatment allowing minors “to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
The law was challenged on constitutional grounds, and in June 2023 a federal district judge in Nashville blocked the measure, finding it was an unconstitutional form of sex discrimination.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati halted the lower court’s decision. Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton said the Constitution provided no clear direction on transgender rights, leaving such judgments to the legislature.
Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented the group challenging the ban, said Wednesday’s decision “is a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution.” Strangio, who identifies as a trans man, said the ACLU would continue “to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person.”
Next term, the Supreme Court is set to consider another case involving treatments for transgender minors. Colorado has banned so-called conversion therapy, which seeks to change a patient’s gender identity to conform to their birth sex. A therapist who says she is a practicing Christian argues the state law violates her First Amendment free-speech rights. A federal appeals court in Denver rejected that claim, finding the law fell within the state’s power to regulate healthcare.
Supreme Court upholds Tennessee ban on youth trans surgeries and treatments added by Editor Two on June 18, 2025
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