The Justice Department, now under President Trump’s control, said Friday it has switched legal positions and now backs Tennessee’s law limiting the ability of doctors to prescribe puberty blockers or hormone treatments to assist the gender transition of a child.
But the department urged the Supreme Court to keep the case on its docket, saying the issue is ripe for a decision.
With President Biden in charge, government lawyers had argued against Tennessee’s law during oral argument at the Supreme Court in December. They said the law violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because it singled out treatments relating to sexual orientation.
That is no longer the belief of the department, however.
The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic,” Deputy Solicitor General Curtis E. Gannon told the justices in a letter. “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 move to change positions had been expected.
But legal scholars had debated whether the Trump team would — or should — ask the justices to dismiss the case instead of see it through to a resolution.
Tennessee’s law, enacted in 2023, bans puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors who are seeking to transition from their gender assigned at birth.
Private citizens first challenged the law and then the Biden Justice Department brought suit. It was that case that reached the justices, and so the reversal of position could be consequential.
Mr. Gannon, though, said the case has been fully developed and waiting to let the private plaintiffs’ case reach the high court isn’t necessary.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes Tennessee’s law, blasted the Trump reversal.
“This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination,” the ACLU said.
The case had the justices worried during oral argument as they pondered the implications of wading into such a thorny area of law.
Democratic appointees fretted they could be upending fundamental rulings on interracial marriage if they sided with the state, while GOP appointees worried they might pave the path for trans athletes to compete in women’s sports or trans students to claim rights to women’s bathrooms if they overturned the state law.
“It seems to me something where we are extraordinarily bereft of expertise,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told the lawyers.
The case is U.S. v. Skrmetti. Jonathan Skrmetti is Tennessee’s attorney general and reporter.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.