Idaho has urgently requested the U.S. Supreme Court to grant permission to enforce its prohibition on transgender treatments and medical interventions for minors.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, backed by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom and Cooper & Kirk, seeks to restrict a lower court’s ruling to only cover the two transgender teens and their families challenging the ban.
They urge the Supreme Court to enable Idaho to uphold its law to safeguard approximately 2 million other minors from what they consider “harmful and experimental drugs and procedures.”
The lawsuit brought by transgender teens and their families, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, targeted specific aspects of the Vulnerable Child Protection Act.
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Nevertheless, a lower court halted Idaho from enforcing the entire law statewide. This prohibition extended even to safeguarding children under the age of five from drugs and surgeries deemed disfiguring and developmental-hindering, as noted by Labrador’s office.
Labrador, in a statement announcing the motion, emphasized the detrimental outcomes he had observed resulting from drugs and procedures administered to children with gender dysphoria.
He stressed the preventable tragedy and the state’s obligation to protect all children, affirming Idaho’s law as a means to ensure children are spared from these life-altering interventions. Labrador underscored the importance of providing love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality to those experiencing gender dysphoria.
Idaho Governor Brad Little signed the Vulnerable Child Protection Act into law last year. The attorney general’s motion in Labrador v. Poe argues that the district court’s broad injunction undermines Idaho’s ability to shield its citizens from acknowledged harm.
It highlights the urgency of preventing vulnerable children from exposure to risky medical procedures and asserts Idaho’s sovereign authority to enforce its law democratically enacted. The motion stresses the lifelong and irreversible consequences of such procedures, with increasing numbers of minors expressing regret.
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The Vulnerable Child Protection Act, enacted by Governor Brad Little, makes it a felony for healthcare providers to administer treatments, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to young people.
Two transgender teens and their families sued the state, arguing the legislation violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and “overrides medical decisions made by parents in consultation with their children’s doctors, about the care of their children.”
ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales said when the bill was signed into law that it is “discriminatory,” and “criminalizes safe, effective, and necessary healthcare for Idaho youth.”
In December, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted a preliminary injunction, preventing the law from taking effect. Winmill cited medical experts affirming the safety and efficacy of such medical interventions for some adolescents.
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The Idaho Attorney General’s Office appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court in January, arguing that the law be allowed to take effect while the case proceeds, but the Ninth Circuit denied the request in two orders.
A three-judge panel denied Labrador’s first request in just one sentence. Labrador asked for the full court to review the matter, but the same panel shot him down a second time. Idaho is now appealing to the Supreme Court.
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