Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 16
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to allow Idaho officials enforce a ban on gender-affirming medical care for nearly all transgender minors statewide, granting a request from state officials to narrow the scope of a lower court’s order that blocked the law from taking effect.
The court’s conservative majority granted the state’s request for a stay over the objections of the three liberals, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The stay does not apply to the two transgender teenage plaintiffs in the case and the care they are seeking, but blocks the more expansive portions of the lower court’s decision.
“The district court’s order promised to run for the life of this lawsuit, thus preventing Idaho from executing any aspect of its law for years. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs face no harm from the partial stay the State requests,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in an opinion that was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho, which is representing two families that challenged the law, denounced the Supreme Court’s order in a statement.
“While the court’s ruling today importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state,” the groups said. “Today’s ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption. Nonetheless, today’s result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family.”
Source: CBS
