Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona and three assistant U.S. Attorneys recently withdrew from a lawsuit challenging the state's transgender minor surgery ban.
U.S. District Judge Liles Burke stayed a trial on Alabama's Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP) in July after the Supreme Court of the United States 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 2024.
The ban is currently in effect in Alabama as litigation over the law continues.
The Department of Justice intervened in the lawsuit in April 2022 under former President Joe Biden. However, private left-wing groups actually filed the lawsuit against the State of Alabama, so the U.S. attorneys' withdrawal from the case won't have any substantive impact on the litigation.
However, their withdrawal does signal that the new administration of President Donald Trump agrees VCAP is good policy. Trump signed an executive order on January 28 entitled Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.
Escalona and the three assistant U.S. attorneys filed their motion to withdraw from the case on January 31. Burke granted the motion on Thursday.
Brianna Boe1 by Caleb Taylor on Scribd
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