Banning Gender-Affirming Treatment for Minors: The Supreme Court Speaks

In United States v. Skrmetti, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical procedures for the treatment of minors with gender dysphoria. A majority of the justices agreed that the law failed to violate the U.S. Constitution's equal protection provision. Because the law failed to distinguish among patients on the basis of sex, they said, it required only a rational basis to survive constitutional scrutiny. A lack of solid evidence on appropriate treatment for transgender minors supplied this rational basis. The Skrmetti majority strained, however, to avoid acknowledging that Tennessee's law classifies people on the basis of sex.