The U.S. Supreme Court set the date for Dec. 4 to hear a case from the ACLU and other groups that are challenging a law passed by the Tennessee legislature that bans surgeries and treatments for minors that alter their external sexual characteristics.
Senate Bill 1 was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in 2023, but the ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, and a law firm filed a suit to stop the law, claiming it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Whether the 14th Amendment applies to children will be of interest to Americans for multiple other reasons. The amendment says, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” But the amendment does not make it clear that children are different. Under the ACLU interpretation, anything goes for kids.
The proposed Tennessee law bans health-care providers from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors or prescribing hormones or puberty blockers to minors because children cannot make informed consent for such procedures.
The challenge to the law, United States v. Skrmetti, was brought by three sexually confused Tennessee teens. The Biden-Harris Administration took the side of the teens against the state of Tennessee. A federal judge agreed with the challengers, but that was overturned by a federal appeals court. The Biden-Harris Administration then took the case to the Supreme Court, which this past summer agreed to hear the case during this court term.
