On Friday, Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a multi-state brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Florida after a federal judge blocked the state law banning transgender surgeries and puberty blockers for minors.
In June, Clinton-appointed Justice Robert Hinkle placed an injunction on the Florida law, arguing that transgender surgeries and drugs for minors are medically necessary and that the state "acted out of animus" against transgender individuals in passing the law.
“Until a few years ago, the notion of providing sex-change treatments to children was practically unthinkable,” Marshall said. “But last month, a district court credited its own view of the ‘moral universe’ over that of the people’s elected representatives, unfairly discounting as ‘animus’ legitimate concerns about providing sterilizing sex-change procedures to vulnerable youth. The Constitution plainly leaves such political judgments to the politically accountable branches of government, not federal judges.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects the appeals court to reverse the injunction since the 11th Circuit has already ruled in favor of Alabama on a similar case involving a virtually identical law.
In February, the 11th Circuit struck down the injunction against Alabama’s law, allowing the state to enforce the Vulnerable Child Protection Act (VCAP) while awaiting a full trial scheduled for August.
In its brief, the multi-state coalition argued that the Florida district court failed to apply the required presumption of “legislative good faith” to Florida’s law and instead used the presumption in favor of organizations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which advocates for providing minors identifying as transgender with hormonal and surgical interventions. The brief mentioned recently unsealed evidence in Alabama’s case, revealing that WPATH’s recommendations were created in collaboration with “social justice lawyers” who told the group not to even look for evidence because doing so would reveal a lack of evidence and hurt their chances of “affecting policy” and “winning lawsuits.”
Marshall was joined in the brief by attorneys general from Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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