Federal judges in Tennessee and Kentucky on Wednesday blocked state laws restricting so-called “gender-affirming care” for children, placing temporary injunctions against bans on receiving life-altering cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson, who halted the state ban in Tennessee, suggested that the law had been passed unconstitutionally.
“The legislative process… is not without constraints," Richardson said. "If Tennessee wishes to regulate access to certain medical procedures, it must do so in a manner that does not infringe on the rights conferred by the United States Constitution, which is of course supreme to all other laws of the land.”
He added that “every court to consider preliminarily enjoining a ban on gender-affirming care for minors has found that such a ban is likely unconstitutional.”
The Tennessee legislature fired back, defending the constitutionality of the ban.
“I’m extremely disappointed with this ruling,” said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Jack Johnson. “I have complete faith that the legislation we passed is constitutional…. This is a critical part of our efforts to protect Tennessee children, and we are going to continue to fight to protect these kids from permanent, irreversible mutilation of their bodies.”
“It is a sad day in Tennessee when, in place of protecting innocent children, our courts normalize a dangerous ideology that promotes the abuse and chemical castration of healthy young people,” added William Lamberth, the bill’s author.
In Kentucky, Attorney General Daniel Cameron called the pause on the ban a “misguided decision… [that] tramples the right of the General Assembly to make public policy….”
“I will always fight the radical idea that risky drugs and life-altering surgical mutilations should be tools to put confused children on an inevitable path toward a life of gender dysphoria," he said on Twitter. "There is nothing “affirming” about this dangerous approach to mental health, and my office will continue to do everything in our power to defend this law passed by our elected representatives.”
Ultimately, this is more than just an attack on the legislative process—it is an attack on our children. Any federal authority that stands in the way of our ability to protect our kids has unequivocally overstepped its bounds.
The federal government is at open war with the states and state-led initiatives to protect kids. To push back against the overreach and insane transgender agenda, states like Tennessee and Kentucky must continue to stand up. Through an Article V convention, the state legislatures can bring power back to the states and ensure that the federal government is kept inside its box.
Urge your state legislator to make this important move today, and sign the Convention of States petition below.
Federal judge blocks state bans on transgender procedures
Published in Blog on June 29, 2023 by Jakob Fay
