Thirteen Republican attorneys general sent a letter demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland “stand down” from prosecuting critics of the genital mutilation and chemical castration of minors. And when The Federalist asked other Republican AG offices whether they support the aims of the letter, two more affirmed their backing, highlighting how their states plan to fight against the Biden Department of Justice’s attacks against the regime’s opponents.
In the letter, Republican AGs in Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, warn Garland against “silencing critics of current gender dysphoria treatment practices for minors” because “it will lead to bad decision-making” and “erode public confidence in both the federal government and the medical community.”
The Republicans’ preemptive strike is a direct response to another letter Garland received this month from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association. These medical organizations, which had already solicited an increase in Big Tech’s censorship of transgender critics, asked the nation’s top law enforcer to investigate and prosecute the people spreading what they have deemed “disinformation” about the abuse of minors.
The increasingly leftist medical organizations claim intervention is necessary due to backlash over a series of journalistic reports exposing the willingness of Boston and Vanderbilt children’s hospitals to maim kids for profit.
Skrmetti and his attorneys general allies, however, say the federal government should “never criminalize criticism … Especially when something as important as our kids’ long-term well-being is at stake.”
“They are asking you to direct the criminal enforcement power of the federal government not only at those committing or threatening violence but also at those whose speech may ‘provoke’ such threats,” the Republicans expressed to Garland. “This broad request, and related comments by leaders in the medical organizations, indicate that they are interested not just in preventing violence but also in suppressing ideas with which they disagree.”
Considering Garland’s history of targeting Americans based on leftist-led letter-writing campaigns, it’s no surprise that Republicans jumped at the chance to deter him from expanding his political enemies list to include people who oppose amputating the healthy genitals of minors.
Republican attorneys general in two other states told The Federalist they support the letter but plan to respond to the Biden administration’s targeting of Americans’ First Amendment rights in other ways. Still others lodged “no comment” responses when contacted by The Federalist.
Alaska’s AG Treg Taylor told The Federalist, “We agree with the content of the letter” but did not disclose whether he plans to join the coalition of 13 attorneys general in any future letter-writing campaigns or litigation. The spokesman for South Dakota AG Mark Vargo told The Federalist he did not want to comment.
Eleven other GOP AGs in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, and Missouri’s Eric Schmitt, the immediate past chairman for the Republicans Attorneys General Association who is now the GOP nominee running for U.S. Senate, did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Katherine Robertson, chief counsel to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, told The Federalist her state chose not to sign onto the letter but is still actively fighting the DOJ’s attempts to criminalize Alabama’s efforts to protect minors from genital mutilation and castration in court.
“The State of Alabama is currently engaged in active litigation against DOJ on issues related to sterilizing sex-change treatments on children,” Robertson said.
That litigation focuses on a law passed by the state legislature and signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in April of 2022, which makes chemically castrating minors a punishable felony. The DOJ claims this ban “discriminates against transgender youth by denying them access to certain forms of medically necessary care,” but the state and governor maintain that “[w]e should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.”
While the DOJ was focused on targeting mutilation and castration critics in Republican states, a federal judge in Texas nixed the Biden administration’s sweeping rules that would have punished doctors and parents opposed to butchering kids in the name of “gender-affirming care.”
Reporting from The Federalist.
