Does prohibiting gender treatment in minors violate the Constitution? The Supreme Court confirmed that it will hear the Tennessee case

The Supreme Court of Justice (SCOTUS) will hear United States vs. Skrmetti, the Biden administration's attempt to allow gender treatment in minors. This was confirmed by the country's highest court, where oral arguments are expected to occur in the fall. According to the White House, a Tennessee law violates the Constitution and “frames that ban in explicitly sex-based terms.”

The Tennesse legislation was signed into law in 2023 by Governor Bill Lee (R), and it restricts puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors.

"As enacted, prohibits a healthcare provider from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex," indicated the local legislature.

After initially being blocked by lower courts, the Cincinnati Court of Appeals allowed the law to take effect.

However, the Biden administration is determined to stop Tennessee's legislation, this time at the Supreme Court. The request to the highest court from the White House came from the pen of Elizabeth B. Prelogar, attorney general, who assured that the legislation prohibits medical care for transgender people but at the same time "leaves the same treatments without restrictions if are prescribed for any other purpose.”

"Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow 'a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex' or to treat 'purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,' Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1), violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," the official added.

Given the acceptance of SCOTUS to take the case, it will be the first time that the highest court in the country decides on the gender treatment of minors. The process will begin in the fall, and a decision is expected to arrive by mid-June 2025.

Currently, given the recent South Carolina case, 25 states have passed laws limiting gender treatments for minors, which, as reported by the AP, have been available for more than a decade.