🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Tennessee law that bars gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The ruling was a major setback for transgender rights.
In a 6—3 ruling, the conservative majority ruling effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump‘s Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that Tennessee’s law falls within the bounds of legislative authority and does not discriminate against transgender individuals under federal constitutional standards.
The decision is expected to bolster the legal footing of similar laws in at least 26 other states, many backed by Republican-led legislatures, which have enacted sweeping measures to limit access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and other medical treatments for minors identifying as transgender.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in a dissent joined by the court’s other liberal justices, condemned the ruling, saying the majority “abandons transgender children and their families to political whims.”
The ruling marks one of the most consequential developments yet in the growing legal clash over how far states can go in regulating care for transgender youth—and how far courts are willing to allow them to go.
This is a breaking news story—more to follow.