[U.S.] Supreme Court sets stage for blockbuster showdown over transgender rights
Link to Full Article (https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4737689-supreme-court-tennessee-transgender-case/)
The Hill - BROOKE MIGDON AND ZACH SCHONFELD
Published 06/24/24 5:58 PM ET
The Supreme Court's decision to hear a challenge to Tennessee's gender-affirming care ban for minors sets the stage for a potentially blockbuster case implicating transgender protections.
It marks the first time the justices will weigh in on the issue, which could impact laws passed by 24 Republican-led states since 2021 that ban medications like puberty blockers and hormones for transgender children and teens. Legal challenges mounted by transgender youths, their families and medical providers have been met with mixed results.
A federal judge earlier this month struck down a Florida law barring access to gender-affirming health care for minors and certain adults, and a similar Arkansas law was ruled unconstitutional last year. Federal court orders are blocking the enforcement of bans in Montana and Ohio.
Monday's announcement has left LGBTQ rights advocates grateful they will get their day in the nation's highest court to object to Tennessee's ban but also apprehensive about where the conservative-leaning court will land.
The Supreme Court's decision to hear the case comes at the urging of the Biden administration, which appealed to the justices after intervening in the challenge brought by a group of anonymous transgender children and their parents.
----------
Under the U.S. system of government, the Supreme Court has no authority to make law. Only the Legislature (House of Representatives and Senate) has authority to make laws. The Supreme Court's authority is to interpret the law such that the meaning of the Legislature is clear. It is then the job of the Executive Branch of government to enforce the laws as written by the Legislature and interpreted by the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court decides that discrimination against transgender youth is unconstitutional, it does not make it a law. It is up to the State Legislatures to pass laws against such discrimination. This would also open the doors for others to claim that discrimination against transgender adults is equally unconstitutional.
If a State Legislature passes a law that discriminates, the Supreme Court decision would make those laws null and void. The Supreme Court has made this very clear throughout history.
"A law repugnant to the Constitution is void. An act of Congress repugnant to the Constitution cannot become a law. The Constitution supersedes all other laws and the individual's rights shall be liberally enforced in favor of him, the clearly intended and expressly designated beneficiary." ~ Marbury v. Madison, (1803)
"An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation as inoperative as though it had never been passed". ~ Norton v. Shelby County, Tennessee (1886)