The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the dismissal of a Biden-era challenge to a Tennessee law that prohibits the use of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and experimental sex-change surgeries to treat gender dysphoria in minors, following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed on Monday that the DOJ's Civil Rights Division filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, stating that “the Trump administration is no longer in the business of attacking laws like Tennessee's that protect children.”
Bondi highlighted the Supreme Court’s decision last month in United States v. Skrmetti, where the justices, in a 6-3 ruling, found that Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, passed in March 2023, did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The court dismissed the arguments presented by trans activists and the Biden administration, affirming that the law was lawful.
The DOJ emphasized that the Supreme Court's ruling “upheld a law that protects ‘vulnerable children from genital mutilation and other so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’” and described the decision as “the right decision.”
“‘The United States today undid one of the injustices the Biden administration inflicted upon the country by dismissing a lawsuit against a Tennessee law that protects minors from invasive and mutilating procedures,’” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division, in a statement. She added, “The Justice Department will continue to fight to protect the health and welfare of our children and defend states that seek to ban these barbaric practices.”
The plaintiffs who challenged the law in April 2023 argued that restrictions on “gender-affirming care” for minors violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
The Biden administration's DOJ initially intervened to support the case but, as of February, at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, it submitted a letter to the court stating that “the U.S. government has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic.”
“In light of the United States' determination that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic, and the Supreme Court's decision in Skrmetti, the United States' participation in this matter no longer serves the ‘statutory purpose’ set forth in [the statute],” the notice of voluntary dismissal read.
In recent years, over two dozen states have enacted laws or policies that bar medical professionals from performing or supervising surgical or hormonal interventions for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
In January, Trump signed an executive order declaring that “the federal government will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” and vowed to rigorously enforce laws against these procedures. The administration also opposed biological male athletes who identify as female competing in women’s sports, warning to withdraw federal funding from schools and states that permit male to compete in women’s categories.
