Originally published July 10, 2023 2:00 pm PDT
In a landmark ruling, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has backed a Tennessee law that limits access to transgender treatments and surgeries for minors.
The decision was handed down by a three-judge panel, who indicated that Tennessee has a high likelihood of successfully defending its legislation in court.
This decision counters a previous call for a preliminary injunction to halt the law’s enforcement, which had been due to come into effect on July 1, LifeSiteNews reports.
The panel’s Chief Judge, Jeffrey Sutton, along with Judge Amul Thapar, were the majority in the 2-1 ruling.
Sutton expressed his perspective that the state would likely prevail based on the substance of the case.
Furthermore, he voiced his view that federal judges should abstain from participating in contentious debates related to transgender issues, and should resist the urge to enforce a unilateral position across all states.
Opponents of the law had attempted to contest it on the basis that it likely infringed upon Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.
Sutton, however, counter-argued this by stating, “the challengers do not argue that the original fixed meaning of either the due process or equal protection guarantee covers these claims.”
Addressing the issue of judicial activism, Sutton cautioned, “That prompts the question whether the people of this country ever agreed to remove debates of this sort—about the use of new drug treatments on minors—from the conventional place for dealing with new norms, new drugs, and new technologies: the democratic process. Life-tenured federal judges should be wary of removing a vexing and novel topic of medical debate from the ebbs and flows of democracy by construing a largely unamendable federal constitution to occupy the field.”
Sutton emphasized that those challenging the law did not possess a favorable legal precedent to back their claims.
He noted they were attempting to “extend the constitutional guarantees to new territory.”
He further commented, “The burden of establishing an imperative for constitutionalizing new areas of American life is not—and should not be—a light one.”
In a final statement, Sutton underlined the significant weight that Tennessee’s interests held in the matter, stating, “Tennessee’s interests in applying the law to its residents and in being permitted to protect its children from health risks weigh heavily in favor of the State at this juncture.”
Contrarily, Judge Helene White only partially concurred with the ruling, leading to the final 2-1 verdict.
President Biden’s administration has lodged a lawsuit against this law as part of a broader strategy to promote treatments for children struggling with gender dysphoria, which they perceive as normalizing a process that has been heavily criticized by some as being akin to chemical and surgical mutilation.
