While the justices’ caseload for the 2024–25 term has so far consisted primarily of lower-profile cases, the court is currently debating topics ranging from presidential immunity to abortion rights and the authority of federal administrative agencies.
That all changed on Monday when the justices entered the culture wars once more, this time around the discussion of transgender rights.
The court decided to take up a lawsuit contesting a Tennessee statute that prohibits providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors in a set of rulings made public on Tuesday morning.
The case will be heard by the judges in the fall, and a ruling is anticipated by late June or early July of 2025.
Prominent American medical organizations have rejected governmental attempts to limit care that is gender affirming, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For instance, the American Medical Association included research in a 2021 letter to the National Governors Association that showed gender-affirming care can result in (among other things) “dramatic reductions in suicide attempts, as well as decreased rates of depression and anxiety.”
The key statute in the case was passed by Tennessee in 2023.
For transgender individuals under the age of 18, it prohibits gender-affirming care such as hormone therapies and gender-transition operations. There are two exceptions to the general rule stipulated by the legislation.
It permits medical professionals to continue providing hormone therapy to patients who were already receiving it until March 31, 2024.
It also permits the use of hormone treatments for additional patients under the age of 18, such as those who enter puberty too early.
The law permits legal action against healthcare professionals who disobey its regulations and stipulates that those professionals may lose their medical licenses.
The challengers in the Tennessee case are a transgender girl, 16, who has undergone estrogen therapy and puberty blockers; a transgender male, 13, who has undergone puberty blockers; and a transgender boy, 16, who has undergone testosterone therapy and puberty blockers.
In a federal court case, the young people, their parents, and a transgender patient’s physician sued Tennessee officials to prevent the state from implementing the state’s ban on hormone therapy, gender-transition operations, and puberty blockers.