W.Va. leaders praise USSC ruling to stop gender affirming care for minors

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a Tennessee law banning all gender affirming care for minors.

In a 6-3 decision June 18, the court ruled that the law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments for trans minors doesn’t violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

“This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound. The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best.

“Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness or logic’ of the law before us, but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”

A majority of states, including West Virginia, have laws similar to Tennessee.

“I commend Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti for his steadfast fight against radical opposition to his state’s law to shield children from risky and unproven medical procedures,” West Virginia AG J.B. McCuskey said. “Today’s decision affirms that we have a duty to enact laws to protect our children.”

McCuskey said his office has been watching the case closely because it could affect two pending West Virginia cases.

“In BPJ v. West Virginia State Board of Education, we argue that a West Virginia statute providing that biological male students should not compete in girls' sports is entirely lawful,” he said. “In our other case, Anderson v. Crouch, we argue that West Virginia has discretion to exclude certain expensive surgeries from state Medicaid coverage.

“Based on today’s ruling, we are developing our next steps and hope to have movement in these two cases soon, with the hope that common sense will once again prevail.”

Gov. Patrick Morrisey was AG for 12 years and spent “years defending women’s sports and protecting women’s safe spaces.”

“I’m very grateful for today’s win at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Morrisey said. “With today’s victory, I am optimistic that West Virginia will soon be able to enforce our common sense law that prevents boys from competing in girls’ sports. More work remains to remove the injunction, but today represents a big step forward.”

The other states allow such care, at minimum hormone treatments before a teen turns 18. A November survey by Napolitan News Service showed 72 percent of 1,000 registered voters believe it should be against the law to provide children under 18 with puberty blockers, drugs and/or surgery to help them transition from one gender to another.

“In today's historic Supreme Court win, the common sense of Tennessee voters prevailed over judicial activism,” Skrmetti said in a press release. “A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee's elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand.

“I commend the Tennessee legislature and Governor Lee for their courage in passing this legislation and supporting our litigation despite withering opposition from the Biden administration, LGBT special interest groups, social justice activists, the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association and even Hollywood. …

“The rapid and unexplained rise in the number of kids seeking these life-altering interventions, despite the lack of supporting evidence, calls for careful scrutiny from our elected leaders. This victory transcends politics. It's about real Tennessee kids facing real struggles. Families across our state and our nation deserve solutions based on science, not ideology. Today's landmark decision recognizes that the Constitution lets us fulfill society's highest calling — protecting our kids.”

The court’s three liberal judges – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – dissented to the majority opinion, saying the court shouldn’t have deferred to state legislative policy choices to uphold the ban.

“By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent also signed by Kagan and Jackson. “In sadness, I dissent.”