The Department of Justice told the Supreme Court last week that it would remove its challenge to the state of Tennessee regarding its law banning transgender medical procedures from being performed on children.
Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon told the Supreme Court in a letter that the DOJ does not hold the position that Tennessee’s SB 1, the law that banned the procedures, violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Following the change in Administration, the Department of Justice has reconsidered the United States’ position in this case. The purpose of this letter is to notify the Court that the government’s previously stated views no longer represent the United States’ position,” the letter stated.
“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 reversing the preliminary injunction against SB1,” the letter continued.
The Supreme Court had heard a challenge to SB 1 in December from both the ACLU and the Biden administration.
SB 1 bans practices such as giving minors puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as performing transgender surgeries.
The law had been blocked by a federal judge before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that judge’s opinion.
The ACLU’s suit against SB 1 is still standing. The DOJ does not seek to dismiss the case but said that a “prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti praised the DOJ for its dropping of the challenge, saying that “[W]e commend President Trump for abandoning the previous administration’s effort to enshrine gender ideology into the Constitution and prevent the people’s elected officials from resolving these important and contentious issues. We look forward to receiving much-needed clarity when the Court issues its decision.”
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