Justice Department ends lawsuit against Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump’s administration ended the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) support for a lawsuit that challenges the legality of a Tennessee law that prohibits doctors from performing transgender surgeries on minors and giving them transgender drugs.

In a letter written to the clerk of the United States Supreme Court, Deputy Solicitor General Curtis E. Gannon said the DOJ is no longer challenging the law. However, he asked that the court still issue a ruling on the matter because it will set precedent for the lower courts to follow.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill to prevent transgender procedures from being performed on minors in March 2023, which subsequently faced legal challenges from some residents in the state and President Joe Biden’s DOJ. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in October of last year and has already heard oral arguments.

Residents — represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump — and Biden’s DOJ argued that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Those lawyers made the case during oral arguments that a blanket prohibition on those procedures for minors constitutes a form of “sex” discrimination.

Lawyers representing Tennessee argued that the law is a simple health and safety regulation that protects all minors from risky procedures and does not discriminate on the basis of sex. 

In the letter to the court, Gannon said Trump’s DOJ does not believe the law violates the Constitution. 

“Following the change in administration, the [DOJ] has reconsidered the United States’ position in this case,” Gannon said. “The purpose of this letter is to notify the court that the government’s previously stated views no longer represent the United States’ position.”

The letter states that the new administration “would not have intervened to challenge” the law.

Gannon wrote, however, that the DOJ is not “seeking to dismiss its case,” adding: “The court’s prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts.”

Because the DOJ will no longer argue against the law, Gannon urged the Supreme Court to continue the case with the private plaintiffs.

The ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump issued a joint statement criticizing the administration’s decision, saying the “discriminatory and baseless ban continues to upend the lives of our plaintiffs — transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider.” 

“These Tennesseans have had their constitutional right to equal protection under the law violated by the state of Tennessee,” the statement read. “This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination.”

In the first few weeks of Trump’s second presidency, the president has taken several actions to curtail the imposition of gender ideology in the United States, including an executive order that affirms there are two genders determined by biological characteristics, an executive order that bans transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, and an executive order to keep men out of women’s sports.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262107/trump-justice-department-ends-lawsuit-against-tennessee-law-banning-transgender-surgeries-for-kids