The Supreme Court Will Allow Idaho to Enforce Its Gender-Affirming Care Ban for Now
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In response to an emergency request filed by Idaho officials in February, the United States Supreme Court will allow the state to temporarily enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The law, signed by Republican governor Brad Little in 2023, makes it a felony to provide gender-affirming care for minors. In June of that year, two trans teens and their families sued the state over the law, challenging its constitutionality; in December 2023, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the state could not enforce the ban while the legal challenge plays out. This new Supreme Court ruling reverses that decision, only blocking enforcement for the plaintiffs but otherwise allowing the ban to go into effect as the litigation continues to play out.
As NBC News noted, the Court’s three liberal justices would have allowed the injunction to remain in place, but they were outnumbered by the conservative majority. In an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the lower court’s injunction constituted an overreach and that it should only apply to the families of the two teens who sued the state over the law.
Anti-trans politicians will undoubtedly be busy once again this year, but LGBTQ\+ activists and advocates have no plans to back down.
Despite not being a ruling on the constitutionality of gender-affirming care for minors, the Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for Idaho, which is being represented by the conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing legal group that is reportedly behind much of the anti-trans legislation raised in statehouses across the country. In its filing, Idaho said that blocking the law “exposes vulnerable children to risky and dangerous medical procedures and infringes Idaho’s sovereign power to enforce its democratically enacted law,” per Politico.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Idaho teens challenging the law, called the decision “an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state” in a statement to the Associated Press.
“Today’s ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption,” the organization said.
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