MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Tuesday filed documents with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a case involving the State of Tennessee, which seeks to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
Marshall filed what is called an amicus brief to "protect children from irreversible sex-change procedures."
The High Court will decide whether restrictions enacted by Tennessee and challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice can stand. The Tennessee law addresses all medical procedures that enable a minor to "identify with, or live with... (an) identity inconsistent with the minor's sex" or to treat "discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."
Marshall is challenging the federal government's position that it is "unconstitutional to place age limits on sex-change procedures."
Three Tennessee teens and their families are aligned with the plaintiff. They want the Court to overturn the law that bans the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone replacements.
The case before the Court is U.S. v. Skrimetti.
“When the Biden-Harris administration sued Alabama and demanded that the state allow sex-change procedures on children, we fought back," Marshall said, referencing a similar legal battle involving the Yellowhammer State and the DOJ. "We ask the Supreme Court to reject the administration’s cynical argument that the Constitution now mandates states like Alabama and Tennessee use those guidelines to harm children.”
Civil liberties groups including the ACLU have lined up against the Alabama and Tennessee laws.
In June, researchers at Harvard University published a study that assessed how many minors were undergoing gender-affirmation surgical procedures.
The study -- published in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- concluded that no one under the age of 13 was receiving such medical care; the rate of transgender youth age 15-17 receiving surgical treatment was found to be just over 2 people for 100,000 TGD minors.
The majority of the procedures involved chest reductions.
Use of puberty blockers and hormones is more common.
Data collected by Reuters and a health technology company found that the use of puberty blockers increased over a recent five-year period, with such medications administered to about 1,400 children (age 17 or younger) nationwide in 2021.
