Attorneys representing the Biden administration petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Tuesday to review a lawsuit challenging Alabama's ban on transgender treatment for minors.
U.S. District Judge Liles Burke stayed a trial on Alabama's Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP) in July after SCOTUS agreed to hear a similar case involving the state of Tennessee.
Governor Kay Ivey signed VCAP into law in 2022, which prohibits doctors in Alabama from performing transgender operations or prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to individuals under 19. VCAP went into effect on May 8, 2022, but was blocked temporarily after Burke granted a preliminary injunction a few days later.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the injunction in January.
The petition by U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clarke filed on Tuesday asks SCOTUS to rule on whether VCAP, "which prohibits certain medical treatments if they are provided to "alter the appearance of or affirm [a] minor's perception of his or her gender or sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor's sex" assigned at birth, Ala. Code § 26-26-4 (2022), violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
The ban is currently in effect in Alabama as litigation over the law continues. SCOTUS likely won't rule on the Tennessee law that restricts transgender surgeries and therapies for minors until the summer of 2025. That ruling will also likely decide the future of Alabama's VCAP law.
20241126144300851_U.S._v._Marshall_petition_Final by Caleb Taylor on Scribd
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