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Sen. Cruz appeals to Supreme Court to deny Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gunmakers

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Sen. Cruz appeals to Supreme Court to deny Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gunmakers

By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE

 U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading a bicameral appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting it to uphold American sovereignty in a $10 billion lawsuit brought by Mexico blaming U.S. gun manufacturers for cartel gun violence in Mexico.

The appeal was made in concert with a similar one by a coalition of 28 state attorneys general, including Alaska’s Attorney General Treg Taylor.

At issue is a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers arguing they are responsible for Mexican cartel crime in Mexico. A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. Mexico then appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last year that its claim fell within an exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.

When the case was before the First Circuit, Cruz led a bicameral appeal, filing an amicus brief with three U.S. senators and 35 U.S. House members. Like the AGs, they argued the PLCAA protects businesses that sell firearms from being held liable for harm caused by criminals who abuse them. Mexico argues an exception in the law enables it to hold liable American gun manufacturers and distributors for cartel gun crime.

But “Mexico’s arguments in this lawsuit don’t hold water, which is why the suit was thrown out in the district court,” Cruz argued in the First Circuit brief. “In sum, what the government of Mexico is trying to do is impose its own interpretation of American law on American businesses. This demonstrates a disregard for our Constitution and in particular, our Second Amendment. They’re also ignoring the fact that Congress has exercised its authority by passing the law in question here, the … PLCAA, and the fact that the United States is a sovereign nation.”

After the First Circuit ruled in favor of Mexico, 27 AGs, led by Montana, appealed in June to the Supreme Court to throw out the case. Cruz also led 10 senators and 14 House members in another amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court requesting it to grant certiorari.

On Tuesday, Cruz led another coalition of 16 U.S. senators and 22 House members, petitioning the Supreme Court again.

Mexico’s lawsuit “seeks to trample on our Constitution,” Cruz said. “I look forward to the Supreme Court ending this madness, putting an end to Mexico’s assault on our Second Amendment, and sending a clear message that American sovereignty will not be eroded by any country.”

The lawsuit has unified a large group of people “as almost as never before,” said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, who is leading the U.S. House coalition. “This is a landmark legal question and weighs whether to allow foreign governments to violate American sovereignty, bankrupt our firearms industry with lawfare, and undermine our Second Amendment rights. Today, we reaffirm our commitment to our constitutional freedoms. Our cause will prevail.”

“Mexico’s lawsuit is an affront to the sovereignty of the United States of America,” the brief states. “It has no place in federal court, and it attempts to coerce American courts to subvert the policy determinations of the political branches of the U.S. Government. A nation’s authority on its own soil is virtually absolute. Congress exercised that authority in passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. … Mexico’s suit disregards those legal principles, trying to impose its own foreign view of liability protection law and the right to bear arms on the American people.

“Mexico’s suit attempts to impose the laws of that foreign nation upon the citizens and companies of this nation. This is ironic, given that Mexico’s Constitution also provides its citizens the right to possess firearms in their residences for self-defense. But that nominal right is a pale shadow of its American counterpart, subject to severe restrictions, coupled with the fact that there is only a single gun store in Mexico. That nation’s laws and tradition of the right to own firearms bear little resemblance to that of our own.”

They also note that the district court “properly rejected Mexico’s arguments that because its alleged injuries occurred outside the United States and because it is a foreign-sovereign plaintiff, PLCAA was categorically inapplicable to this lawsuit.”

In August, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston again dismissed the case, this time against six of eight U.S. companies named in the lawsuit. He ruled Mexico didn’t provide concrete evidence to prove that their operations in Massachusetts had any connection to cartel gun violence in Mexico.

In October, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the case.

Judicial conduct commission meets

Suzanne Downing
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Judicial conduct commission meets

The Alaska Commission Judicial Conduct will hold its quarterly meeting Friday, Dec. 6, at the commission’s office and by Zoom, with public participation available only via Zoom. The public session will begin at 9:30 a.m., subject to change, with closed session to follow.

The public session addresses the commission’s budget, educational activities, advisory opinions, and general administrative issues. The public session does not address any specific complaints against judges, which are handled in private.

While there will be a set amount of time for the public to address the commission, anyone wishing to speak at this meeting is requested to notify our office no later than 30 minutes before the start of the meeting to schedule. Speakers should tailor their remarks to public matters related to the commission’s function, the announcement said.

If you wish to appear, or have questions about Commission meetings, you may contact Commission Staff at [email protected] or (907) 272-1033.

The Alaska Bar Association recently sought nominations for two seats on the Commission on Judicial Conduct: one in the combined 2nd and 4th Judicial Districts and one in the 3rd Judicial District.  Nominations were sought from Nov. 4 through 25th.  Only one candidate ran for each vacant position and as a result, no advisory poll is needed. The following are candidates:

2nd/4th Judicial Districts: William R. Satterberg

3rd Judicial District: Donald W. McClintock III

Judicial Conduct Commission executive director refuses to draft letter to Supremes

Anchorage School District mystifies parents with garbled messages about weather closures

Suzanne Downing
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Anchorage School District mystifies parents with garbled messages about weather closures

The Anchorage School District went to remote learning on Thursday after freezing rain on pavement made roads dangerous for students, parents, and others.

But the school district sent an email about it to parents on Thursday, the text of which was unintelligible. Instead of being in English, it was in Lorem Ipsum, which is a type of filler text that made no sense at all:

Later, the district apologized, after parents were stunned by what was clearly unclear and reached out for explanation.

“Due to deteriorating road conditions, we are shifting from 2-hour delay start to a remote learning day. Also, all after school activities and community rentals are cancelled for today. Girdwood K-8 will have in-person learning and no bus transportation. Apologies for the previous update on email. There was a technical glitch. Again apologies for the confusion,” the district wrote on its Facebook page.

Lorem ipsum is dummy text used as a placeholder. It is derived from Latin, but not intended to be readable or convey anything relevant.

By the numbers: Evidence starting to show military confidence and recruitments rose after Trump win

Suzanne Downing
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By the numbers: Evidence starting to show military confidence and recruitments rose after Trump win

Anecdotal evidence that Americans have more confidence in the military now that Donald Trump has been elected is being supported by data.

Must Read Alaska interviewed a young man from the Mat-Su Valley this week who said that he and two of his friends enlisted in the military right after Trump was elected. The young men, right out of high school, had been waiting to see what kind of American would be commander-in-chief before they made the decision to join. The Trump win gave them confidence America would be heading in the right direction and leadership would have their backs.

The three young Alaskans may be part of a greater trend in confidence in the military growing once again, after four years of decline. Those numbers won’t be known until the military releases its next recruitment report.

Indeed, American public’s opinion of the military is turning around, according to the annual defense survey from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

This year, confidence in the military grew from 46% last year to 51% immediately after Trump’s victory, according to the survey that went into the field immediately after the election on Nov. 5.

During the Biden Administration, the military has fallen short of its recruiting goals, although the Army improved slightly over 2023.

In 2023, for example, military recruitment it fell short by 41,000, with the Army, Navy, and Air Force all missing their targets. The Marine Corps and Space Force were the two branches that met their recruitment goals. The military started 2024 at a record low in military recruitment, and the smallest active duty force since 1940.

“Year after year, this survey shows continued, unwavering support for peace through strength,” said Roger Zakheim, Director of the Ronald Reagan Institute. “Trust and confidence in the military is rebounding after hitting a low in recent years, and Americans support increased defense spending to build a military able to deter and defeat adversaries in multiple theaters.”

The latest survey details American opinions on international engagement.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed, including 61% of Trump voters, believe the United States should be more engaged and take the lead on the world stage, a 15-point increase from last year, the institute found.

Other key takeaways from the Ronald Reagan Defense Institute survey include:

  • A supermajority of Americans wants the United States to spend more on national defense. Seventy-nine percent of respondents want the United States to spend more on the military, including nearly nine out of ten (89%) Trump voters.
  • Trust in the U.S. military is rebounding, with 51% of respondents reporting a great deal of confidence, up 5% from last year.
  • This number is still nearly 20 points lower than in 2018, when 70% of respondents reported high confidence in the
    military, during the Trump Administration.
  • A majority of respondents (61%) believe the United States military should be large enough to win two simultaneous wars at once.
  • Half of Americans (49%) believe China poses the greatest threat to the United States, and 25% believe Russia poses
    the greatest threat. Only 52% of respondents think the U.S. military would win a war against China, while 64% believe the United States would win a war against Russia.
  • Americans still favor sending military aid to Ukraine but want a negotiated end to the war. Fifty-five percent of Americans believe the United States should send weapons to Ukraine, a slight decline from recent years. There are major partisan
    differences on this issue, with 74% of Harris voters supporting sending aid and only 42% of Trump voters.
  • A bipartisan majority (59%) supports Ukraine negotiating for peace, even if it requires conceding some territory to Russia.
  • In the Middle East, freeing American hostages is a top priority.
  • A majority (61%) wants freeing Americans held hostage by Hamas to be a top priority in the Middle East.
  • A majority (54%) also supports the United States providing military aid to Israel, including 67% of Trump voters and 46% of Harris voters.

The survey was conducted Nov. 8-14 by Beach Research and Shaw & Company Research. The sample size was 2,510, including 1,008 telephone interviews and 1,502 online surveys. The Institute conducts a similar survey after every election to gauge public opinion on matters of national security.

There are still major hurdles to rebuilding the military. One of them is that only 23% of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 qualify physically, in part because a growing number of young people are sedentary, obese, and have associated health issues that make them unable to meet the physical fitness requirements.

Additionally, the population in general is shrinking and there are fewer young people than in the past, due to smaller families. Many young people now don’t know anyone in their immediate family who has served, which decreases their exposure to military life.

Dig deeper into the survey results at this Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute link.

According to the Army recent recruitment report for 2024, the branch met its regular Army recruitment goal for 2024, but missed badly in its recruitment for the Army Reserve:

Regular Army (RA):  55,150 (100.27% of 55,000 goal) 
Army Reserve (AR): 10,669 (72.8% of 14,650 goal)  

Special Operations Recruiting BN: 3,735 (77% of 4,851 mission)
Warrant Officers: 1,610 (99.5% of 1,618 mission)
Medical Mission: 1,376 (100.7% of 1,367 mission)
Chaplains: 286 (105.9% of 270 mission)

Demographics
Male:     RA  81.9%    AR 66.5[JR1] [JR2] % 
Female:     RA  18.1%    AR 33.5% 
Caucasian:     RA 40.5% AR 28.8% 
African American:     RA 25.8%    AR 28.6% 
Hispanic:     RA 26.1%    AR 32.1% 
Asian/Pacific Islander:     RA   6.6%   AR 9.9% 
Native American:     RA 1.0%    AR 0.6%

Dunleavy picks new Supreme Court justice, but leaves the announcement to the Judicial Council

Suzanne Downing
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Dunleavy picks new Supreme Court justice, but leaves the announcement to the Judicial Council

Given three names to choose from by the Alaska Bar Association-controlled Alaska Judicial Commission, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has chosen Fairbanks attorney Aimee Anderson Oravec to be the next judge on the Alaska Supreme Court.

The Alaska Judicial Council, which screens the applicants and forwards the finalists to the governor, made the announcement on Facebook, but the governor himself has made no official statement or published his decision, which gives the appearance that he is distancing himself from the decision. He had 45 days to make a decision once he received the three names from the Judicial Council.

No men applied for the role. Oravec was one of seven women who applied to fill the seat of retiring member Chief Justice Peter Maassen, who faces mandatory retirement in 2025.

Oravec arrived in Alaska in 1999 and has practiced law in Fairbanks and Anchorage for over about 26 years, currently as the top attorney for Doyon Utilities.

Last week, the court chose Justice Susan Carney to serve as chief justice for the next three-year term. With Oravec joining the court, it will be a majority woman Supreme Court made up of Oravec, Carney, Jennifer Henderson, Dario Borghesan, and Jude Pate. Barring some unusual circumstance, Oravec will be Dunleavy’s last appointment to the Alaska Supreme Court, as none of the five face mandatory retirement for many years.

This is Dunleavy’s fourth appointment to the five-member court, but his and all governors’ options are always limited by the constitutional role of the Alaska Judicial Council, which is dominated by liberal lawyers of the Alaska Bar Association, a professional group. The stranglehold the ABA has on the process is the main reason why the Alaska Supreme Court leans left.

The Alaska Supreme Court justice who has served longest in this era is Chief Justice Maassen, who was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell in 2012.

Justice Carney, who will be the second female chief justice after Dana Fabe, who retired in 2016, is left-leaning. She is pro-abortion and she helped decide that the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend is just another appropriation by the Legislature, rather than an actual dividend for Alaskans to share in the oil wealth. She was appointed by Gov. Bill Walker, who was the governor who broke the Permanent Fund dividend formula and had that decision upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court.

Her honor: No men apply for Alaska Supreme Court vacancy

Supreme Court weighs Tennessee’s state ban on chemo, surgical gender jerry-rigging of kids’ bodies

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Supreme Court weighs Tennessee’s state ban on chemo, surgical gender jerry-rigging of kids’ bodies

By KIM JARRETT | THE CENTER SQUARE

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday began weighing its role in determining whether a Tennessee law banning medication to treat gender dysphoria for minors violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

The court heard oral arguments on the law passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2023 and signed by Gov. Bill Lee. The state is one of at least 26 with similar restrictions or bans and the first to have litigation against it reach the nation’s highest court.

The high court is split 6-3 with conservatives in the majority.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and others argue the law violates the 14th Amendment. Tennessee law allows puberty blockers and hormone treatments for purposes other than treatment on minors.

The question before the court is what is its role, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

“If the constitution doesn’t take sides, if there’s strong, forceful, scientific policy arguments on both sides in a situation like this, why isn’t best to leave it to the democratic process?” Kavanaugh said.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden Administration, said she understood the state’s need to regulate and take into concerns about adolescent health.

“But when you look at how this law actually operates, what it is doing is denying individual plaintiffs the ability to access medications on the basis of their sex,” Prelogar said. “And that doesn’t mean that the states are disabled from taking into account the actual biological differences between males and females, but that has to be channeled to the highest scrutiny stage. And I think that there would be a real danger in this court saying, looking ahead essentially saying there might be benign justifications or we think states should have some ability in this regard to overlook the … sex classification in this statute.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said it should be up to the General Assembly.

“Tennessee’s General Assembly reviewed the medical evidence, as well as the evidence-based decisions of European countries that restricted these procedures, and ultimately passed this bipartisan law prohibiting irreversible medical interventions,” Skrmetti said in a statement after oral arguments ended. “The plaintiffs in this case are asking the court to take the power to regulate the practice of medicine away from the people’s elected representatives and vest it in unaccountable judges.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor struck back against claims by Tennessee Solicitor General Michael Rice that the law is not tied to sex and that the treatments could cause harm to minors.

“There is always going to be a percentage of the population under any medical treatment that is going to suffer harm,” Sotomayor said. “So the question in my mind is not do policymakers decide whether one person’s life is more valuable than the millions of others who get relief from this treatment, the question is can you stop one sex from the other.”

Justice Samuel Alito referred to the United Kingdom and Sweden, which have instituted bans on puberty blockers in some situations.

“I, of course acknowledge, Justice Alito, that there is a lot of debate happening here and abroad about the proper model of deliver of this care and exactly when adolescents should receive it and how to identify the adolescents for whom it would be helpful,” Prelogar said. “But I stand by that there is a consensus that these treatments can be medically necessary for some adolescents and that shouldn’t matter what source you look at.”

Prelogar said the court could issue a narrow ruling, pointing the court to a West Virginia law that bans gender-affirming care for minors unless there is a suicide risk.

The decision from the court is not expected before summer.

Data shows Biden-Harris Administration opened floodgates for taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids

Florida sheriff withdraws name from DEA post after backlash over his Covid enforcement

Suzanne Downing
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Florida sheriff withdraws name from DEA post after backlash over his Covid enforcement

Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister, who was the nominee for the director of the Drug Enforcement Agency, has withdrawn his name after receiving intense criticism on social media, due to his aggressive enforcement of lockdowns during the Covid era.

“To have been nominated by President-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is the honor of a lifetime. Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister wrote on X. “There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling. I sincerely appreciate the nomination, outpouring of support by the American people, and look forward to continuing my service as Sheriff of Hillsborough County.”

Chronister’s nomination came under fire from conservatives who pointed out that he had approved the arrest of a Tampa Bay pastor on charges of unlawful assembly and violating a public health order, when the pastor had continued to provide church services during a Covid lockdown.

In March of 2020, the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office wrote that the pastor was arrested because “His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger. The River at Tampa Bay has an advantage over most places of worship, because they have access to technology that allows them to live stream their services over the internet and broadcast television for the more than 4,000 members to watch from the safety of their homes.”

Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he asked Chronister to withdraw because of the treatment of the faith community during Covid lockdowns.

Trump picks Florida sheriff for new head of Drug Enforcement Agency

Trump adds more nominees, as Pete Hegseth says he will fight against attempts to oust him from Defense

Suzanne Downing
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Trump adds more nominees, as Pete Hegseth says he will fight against attempts to oust him from Defense

In a Wall Street Journal opinion column on Wednesday, Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth put to rest the media-spread rumors that he would withdraw from the position he was named to — leading the U.S. Department of Defense. He said he would stay and fight for it and that Donald Trump encouraged him to fight on through the allegations being brought against him.

“I’ve been through a lot: combat tours, job changes, divorces and family challenges. (Yes, I love my mom very much, and she loves me.) I have always led with honesty, integrity and passion. Tragically, many veterans never find the purpose for their next chapter and succumb to the bottle, depression or, worst of all, suicide. I understand what they are facing—because I’ve lived it. But by the grace of God, I took another path. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has renewed and restored my life. I am saved by his grace,” Hegseth wrote in the newspaper.

“The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown. They provide no evidence, no names, and they ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about,” Hegseth wrote.

“Talk to those who served with me in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan or the National Guard. They support me, and I’m honored by that. I have never backed down from a fight and won’t back down from this one. I am grateful President-elect Trump chose me to lead the Defense Department, and I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing with our distinguished senators—not a show trial in the press,” he concluded in this op-ed that has been made available outside the Wall Street Journal’s paywall.

Hegseth and Stefanik stop in to visit with Sen. Dan Sullivan as nomination process continues

Trump on Wednesday named former Missouri Congressman Billy Long to serve as the next commissioner of what is arguably the most despised agency of the Deep State: The Internal Revenue Service. It’s one of several names he has announced in the past 24 hours to key posts, most of which will require the Senate’s confirmation.

“Billy brings 32 years of experience running his own businesses in Real Estate and, as one of the premier Auctioneers in the Country. He then served 12 years in Congress, because he felt it was important for his constituents to have a Representative who has signed the front of a check!”
 
Since leaving Congress, Long has worked as a business and tax advisor. While in office, he cosponsored Bill H.Res.1005: Honoring the life and legacy of the late Congressman Don Young of Alaska.

Trump also announced that David A. Warrington will be the assistant to the president and counsel to the president, leading the Office of White House Counsel and serving as the top attorney for the White House. Warrington is Trump’s personal attorney and is a partner at the Dhillon Law Group. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a former president of the Republican National Lawyers Association and a graduate of Georgetown University School of Law.

Trump named Monica Crowley to serve as ambassador, assistant secretary of State, and chief of protocol. Crowley, like Hegseth did in 2016, has visited Alaska as a guest speaker of the Alaska Republican Party in years past.

“Monica will be the Administration Representative for major U.S. hosted events, including America’s 250th Birthday in 2026, the FIFA World Cup in 2026, and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028,” Trump said. During his first term, Crowley was assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs.

Gail Slater was nominated to be assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice.

“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech! I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership,” Trump said. Slater served in the first Trump Administration on his National Economic Counsel. Recently, she worked in the Senate office of Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Trump has picked Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, a crypto-currency expert, was a former commissioner at the SEC. SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced last month that he will step down when Trump becomes president on Jan. 20.  

Former U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia is Trump’s pick to run the Small Business Administration.

Former White House adviser Peter Navarro, who just finished serving a prison sentence over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 disruption at the U.S. Capitol, will come back as a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, which “leverages Peter’s broad range of White House experience, while harnessing his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills,” Trump wrote.

Data shows Biden-Harris Administration opened floodgates for taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Data shows Biden-Harris Administration opened floodgates for taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids

By MEGAN BLOCK | DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION

The Biden-Harris administration opened the door for a massive increase of taxpayer-funded transgender interventions, including child sex-change surgeries, and the Daily Caller News Foundation has obtained enough data to give a partial estimate of the cost.

From January 2018 to September 2023, 16 states spent more than $165 million funding “gender transition services” — including puberty blockers, hormones, and sex-change surgeries — with more than $45 million spent on interventions for children 17 and younger, according to data obtained by the DCNF through a series of public record requests.

The DCNF asked states to provide reimbursement data for gender transition services covered through state insurance and medical assistance programs, such as Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is funded through Medicaid. The states were able to identify gender transition services through medical billing codes such as International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. Published by the World Health Organization, ICD codes provide comprehensive diagnostic information for diseases and injuries and create a valuable dataset used in medical research.

The DCNF requested the total amount of reimbursements paid for all gender transition services — which could include speech therapy and mental health services as well as life-altering surgeries — that were covered through state insurance and medical assistance programs.

The states that provided data to the DCNF include: Michigan, Idaho, Illinois, Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Editor’s note: Alaska apparently did not provide data to the DCNF.

The three states with the highest amount of reimbursements for gender transition services for adults and kids were Illinois, Oregon, and Washington state. Illinois spent $40,843,721, which included $14,296,558 in services for children 17 and under. Oregon spent $30,045,262 and Washington State spent $27,145,383. Other statewide totals for gender transition services includes Maryland, which spent $11,849,062, Nevada, which spent $10,096,655, Michigan, which spent $6,821,169, and New Hampshire, which spent $2,360,534, according to data sent to the DCNF.

Virginia provided the DCNF with data from 2020 to 2022, spending a total of $13,933,635 on gender transition services in three years, with $3,480,492 spent on sex-change interventions for children 17 and under.

The state of Oregon specified that their data included reimbursement costs for a range of sex-change procedures including surgeries, anesthesia costs, hair removal, speech therapy, hormone therapy, and puberty suppression.

The data showed a 60% increase in sex-change interventions for adults and kids under the Biden-Harris administration across the 15 states that provided yearly data totals for 2020 to 2022, jumping from $27,753,478 spent on gender transition services in 2020 to $44,553,052 in 2022. Utah did not break down its data into yearly totals and was excluded from this calculation. While data for 2023 was incomplete, 12 states provided some totals showing $22,017,362 had been spent on sex-change interventions over the first nine months of last year.

The DCNF attempted to obtain similar data from 48 states. However, many states outright denied the requests or sought exorbitant fees to obtain public data. 

For example, Rhode Island wanted a prepayment of more than $3,000 to fulfill the request that other states considered exempt from public information processing fees.

Explosion In Sex Changes For Minors 

Democrat-led policies that required insurers to pay for sex changes for minors led to an increase in the procedures nationwide, according to a leading transgender activist and physician.

In a June 2022 email exclusively obtained by the DCNF, Jason Rafferty, the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics sex-change policy, attributed the growth of pediatric sex-change surgery to services being more “accessible” due to increased Medicaid funding.

“I would say that there has likely been an increase in ‘top surgery’ among 16 and 17 year olds simply due to the fact that this surgery has become more accessible. 10 years ago when I started in this field, if a patient wanted surgery there was really only 1 surgeon in the region doing it for patients under 18 and aside from that they would need to travel across the country and pay out of pocket,” wrote Rafferty.

“Clearly if you were on Medicaid or did not have the resources, it was off the table. Today, we have 3 surgeons in [Rhode Island] doing these surgeries and probably half a dozen in [Massachusetts] plus a pediatric plastic surgeon at Boston Childrens specializing in gender surgeries. Most if not all now take Medicaid – very few patients are paying the fully cost of surgery out of pocket. So, the point is that my experience is not that surgery is ‘more popular’ but just more (or simply just) accessible,” he wrote.

Rafferty did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the DCNF.

The rapid growth of tax dollars funding the sex-change industry can be attributed to policies from Democrat presidential administrations.

In 2014, the Obama-Biden administration overturned a rule preventing Medicare from funding sex-change surgeries, opening the doors for taxpayers to pay for sex-change operations. They further expanded coverage for sex-change interventions in 2016 through their interpretation of Section 1557, a non-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act.

In May 2016, the Obama-Biden administration issued a rule that quietly redefined the discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and “gender identity,” a move which strong-armed the entire medical community into embracing gender ideology and sex-change interventions, especially for children. “Gender identity” is a term used by transgender activists to describe how a person feels about or perceives their sex. Activists believe these feelings override a person’s biology and should have equal weight in law and society.

The Obama-Biden administration’s regulatory change prevented insurance companies from categorically denying coverage for sex-change interventions, considering such bans a form of discrimination, which forced insurance plans to offer coverage for sex-change services.

“What the rule was about under Obama, and now under Biden-Harris, was to force medical providers to do the surgeries, even against their medical judgments, and for insurance companies to pay for it, which means we all pay for it,” Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation and former director of the Office for Civil Rights at Health and Human Services, told the DCNF.

“That includes the whole gamut from hysterectomies to breast augmentations to tracheal shapes, voice training — just an extraordinary number of very expensive procedures to treat a psychological condition using physical interventions, surgeries, etc. and no real religious exemption,” Severino said.

A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed the impact of Obama’s 2016 Rule, finding the number of sex change surgical procedures performed in the U.S. nearly tripled between 2016 to 2019. Roughly 8% of patients were between the ages of 12 to 18, the study found, and showed a sharp rise in breast and chest surgery from 2016 to 2019 within the pediatric population.

Biden-Harris Restores Gender Surgery Funding After Trump Admin

In June 2020, the Trump administration overturned Obama’s Rule on Section 1557, reinstating the government’s previous interpretation of discrimination must be based on biological sex rather than “gender identity.” At that time, Severino was the director of the Office for Civil Rights at Health and Human Services.

On May 10, 2021, however, the Biden-Harris administration reversed the Trump rule and redefined discrimination under Section 1557 to include “gender identity,” again forcing the medical community, including insurance companies, to provide sex-change services to children or face accusations of discrimination.

“I issued the Trump regulations, undoing the Obama Section 1557 changes that added gender identity as a protected class and requiring cross sex, surgeries, hormones, puberty blockers, included on children in federally funded programs and in insurance,” Severino said.

“They were as comprehensive as they could to try to push unscientific gender ideology into the medical system, and they succeeded, over the last three plus years, in trying to coerce hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies to push experimental treatments and surgeries, including and especially on children,” Severino added.

Do No Harm, a medical watchdog group, recently published a databasethat found from 2019 to 2023, 13,994 children in the United States have received sex change-related treatments and 5,747 sex change surgeries had been performed on children.

“Medical professionals must provide evidence-based care, not pursue a political agenda,”Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, told the DCNF. “We are committed to ending this predatory practice, which is harmful to the thousands of minors whose lives and bodies will never be the same.”

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service

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