In a landmark upcoming Supreme Court case, transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider from Tennessee have urged the Supreme Court of the United States to block a state law banning hormone therapies for trans youth as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
“It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed,” said plaintiff Samantha Williams, mother of 16-year-old L.W. “We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving. Tennessee’s ban has forced us at great expense to seek routine health care visits out of state and may at some point force us to leave Tennessee–the only home our children have ever known. No family should have to make this kind of choice.”
“I don’t even want to think about having to go back to the dark place I was in before I was able to come out and access the care that my doctors have prescribed for me,” said L.W., Samantha and Brian Williams’ 16-year-old daughter. “I want this law to be struck down so that I can continue to receive the care I need, with the support of my parents and my doctors, and have the freedom to live my life and do the things I enjoy.”
The brief filed today by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 16-year-old transgender daughter, two other plaintiff families filing anonymously, and Memphis-based medical doctor Dr. Susan Lacy. Today’s brief follows the Court’s June 2024 decision to hear the challenge brought by the United States and these plaintiffs and lays out the fundamental flaws of a lower court ruling that allowed Tennessee’s ban to take effect, including the ruling’s brazen disregard of longstanding sex discrimination precedent and of the Court’s recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, as well as the significant harms the ban has already had on transgender youth across the state.
“Access to scientifically proven medical care is essential for transgender youth to thrive,” said Sasha Buchert, Counsel and Nonbinary & Transgender Rights Project Director, Lambda Legal. “Tennessee has ripped medically necessary health care away from transgender young people that can literally be lifesaving, and that is essential to their ability to live with confidence and joy. And let’s be clear, Tennessee is not prohibiting this medical care for all Tennessee youth—only for trans youth, targeting that most vulnerable population. The Supreme Court must strike down this cruel and discriminatory law and return health care decisions to families and their doctors.”
“The well-being of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this Court adhering to the facts, the Constitution, and its own precedent both recent and long-standing,” said Chase Strangio, Co-Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law. They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms. We want transgender people and their families across the country to know we will spare nothing in our defense of you, your loved ones, and your right to decide whether to get this medical care.”
“Tennessee, along with many other states in the South, has become a testing ground for targeted assaults on the constitutional rights of trans Tennesseans. Every day this law remains in place, it inflicts further pain, injustice, and discrimination on trans youth and their families,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee. “Make no mistake – if the Supreme Court fails to protect trans Tennesseans’ access to the medical care they need to survive and thrive, local politicians will go even further. They will continue to rewrite the history that our schools teach, discriminate based on what we look like, where we’re from, and who we love, and control if, when, and how Tennesseans choose to start their families. By protecting Tennessee trans youth’s right to access the medicine they need to thrive and survive, the Supreme Court can stop politicians from further eroding our freedoms and invading our lives for their own political gain.”
“At this point, only the Supreme Court can stop states like Tennessee from depriving transgender adolescents of the medical care that they, their parents, and their doctors all recognize as vital to their health and well-being,” said Pratik Shah, Head of Supreme Court & appellate practice at Akin Gump. “Our Constitution doesn’t countenance such targeting for failing to adhere to the state’s preferred gender norms.”
In April 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP sued the State of Tennessee to block S.B 1 which prohibits medical providers from prescribing medical treatments to transgender youth, such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies, that is exempts for minors who are not transgender. Following a decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, S.B. 1 took effect in July 2023. Since 2021, 24 states have banned hormone therapies for transgender youth.
Oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti are expected during this Supreme Court term, with a ruling expected in 2025.
Read today’s brief here.