Governor Kay Ivey recently joined nine Republican governors in an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in defense of a case before SCOTUS determining the future of a Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries and medications for minors, which will have major implications for a similar law in Alabama.
In April 2022, Ivey signed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP) into law, 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 by U.S. District Judge Liles Burke a few days later. The injunction came after multiple parties added themselves as plaintiffs in a case challenging the law, including five transgender minors through their parents and the Department of Justice.
Alabama's law is still being adjudicated in federal court, but states with similar laws are also facing legal challenges from the Biden administration and other pro-transgender advocacy groups.
In June, SCOTUS announced it would take up the case of Tennessee's Help Not Harm Law, a virtually identical law to VCAP that was similarly challenged in federal court. Of the over 20 states that have passed some ban or restriction on so-called gender-affirming care for minors, all are currently involved in litigation. The Tennessee case is the first such law to be taken up by SCOTUS.
Ivey joined the brief led by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, asking SCOTUS to side with Tennessee and allow the law to proceed.
The full brief can be found below:
Governors' Brief by Craig Monger on Scribd
"Governors have signed these prohibitions on experimental gender-transition procedures into law because they–and the citizens of their States–want to protect children," the brief reads. "The goal is to keep children from making life-changing decisions that they may later regret. That's not some radical position. States prohibit children from making certain decisions all the time."
It continues, "As more States employed this authority to protect children from life-altering gender-transition procedures, a familiar pattern has emerged. A Governor signs the bill into law, and then transgender activists accuse the Governor—usually in dramatic language— of committing a cruel attack on children. These predictable and inevitable accusations that a Governor acted with animus could not be further from the truth."
Governors Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Ark.), Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), Brian Kemp (R-Ga.), Jeff Landry (R-La.), Tate Reeves (R-Miss.), Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.), Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Spencer Cox (R-Utah) all joined the brief.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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