Culture and Social Issues

Trump DOJ Tells Supreme Court It Should Use Biden Admin’s Misguided Fight Against Child Sex Change Bans To Clarify Law

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Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) urged the Supreme Court Friday to move forward with a major case on state laws banning child sex change procedures, despite the change in administrations.

While the Biden administration challenged Tennessee’s law as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, the Trump administration informed the court it would not take the same position, suggesting the court should keep the case to clarify such laws are constitutional.

“The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic,” Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon wrote. “Accordingly, the new Administration would not have intervened to challenge SB1—let alone sought this Court’s review of the court of appeals’ decision reversing the preliminary injunction against SB1.”

The DOJ still argued that the case, United States v. Skrmetti, should not be dismissed because the issues continue to come up in other cases and were also raised by private plaintiffs.

“The Court’s prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts,” Gannon wrote.

Tennessee lawmakers William Lamberth and Jack Johnson, who are behind the bill at the heart of today’s Supreme Court case, speak outside the court after oral arguments. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/axy3SLopRC

— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) December 4, 2024

When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in December, a majority seemed inclined to uphold Tennessee’s ban. Justice Samuel Alito probed the government’s claim that overwhelming evidence shows puberty blockers and hormone therapy improve wellbeing for adolescents with gender dysphoria, pointing to European developments discrediting this position.

In his executive order cutting federal funding for child sex changes signed Jan. 28, Trump called the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) “junk science” and banned federal agencies from using its guidance.

The Biden administration cited WPATH standards in its briefs before the court. Meanwhile, former Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, who identifies as transgender, pressured WPATH to remove minimum age requirements on its Standards of Care 8 guidelines to further the administration’s policy goals.