CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office has joined a 22-state coalition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a Tennessee law that prohibits certain medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers and hormones.
In the amicus brief filed last week, the coalition asked the court to uphold the fundamental role of the states in the regulation of medicine, healthcare and child welfare.
“We are talking about the safety children’s wellbeing, both physical and psychological,” Morrisey said in a press release. “States must have the right to protect them from these life-altering surgical and chemical procedures.”
Morrisey
| File photo
According to the brief, it is the people through their elected state representatives who determine what procedures are safe and beneficial for children in the country’s federalist system. The coalition says states can – and are – choosing different policy approaches. Currently, more than 20 states have enacted laws similar to Tennessee’s. On the other hand, at least 14 states have enacted contrary laws.
The coalition maintains that if the Supreme Court were to rule against Tennessee’s law, it “would constitutionalize an issue of intense public and scientific debate best left to the political branches. The court would remove from the people and their representatives the chance to weigh the scientific claims, decide how best to address the competing interests and make the difficult policy decision.”
Morrisey joined the brief led by Kentucky, Arkansas and Indiana with attorneys general from Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
Earlier this month, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a response brief defending Tennesseans’ decision to prohibit risky and irreversible gender-transition procedures for kids.
“The people of Tennessee, through their elected representatives, took measured action with Senate Bill 1 to protect kids from irreversible, unproven medical procedures,” Skrmetti said in an October 8 press release. “Lawmakers recognized that there is little to no credible evidence to justify the serious risks these procedures present to youth and joined a growing number of European countries in restricting their use on minors with gender-identity issues.”
Skrmeti said since the country’s beginnings, state have governed the practice of medicine within their borders, noting that states license doctors and medical professionals as well as regulate medical practices, including by exercising their authority to restrict the administration of drugs.
When the bipartisan representatives of the people of Tennessee passed Senate Bill 1, Skrmetti said lawmakers used this longstanding power to restrict the use of pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for gender transitions for kids under 18 years old.
“The federal government, in its arguments to the Supreme Court, puts its faith in a false and manufactured consensus that ignores the many doctors, States, and countries who have looked at the evidence and determined these treatments are too risky for kids,” Skrmetti said. “The Constitution does not prevent the States from regulating the practice of medicine where hot-button social issues are concerned. People who disagree with restrictions on irreversible pediatric procedures for gender transition are free to advocate for change through state elections.”
United States Supreme Court case number 23-477