WASHINGTON − An ideologically divided Supreme Court on June 18 upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a major setback for transgender Americans who have increasingly become targets of conservative states and the Trump administration.
The court's six conservative justices upheld the ban and the three liberals dissented.
The decision − one of the court's biggest this year − came about five years after the court ruled that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace.
But in this case, the court said that preventing minors from using puberty blockers and hormone therapy does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same.
"Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
