WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The justices' decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which restrooms they can use.
The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people.
"The Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor," Roberts said in an exchange with Strangio.
The Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender health care for minors.
In arguments that lasted more than two hours, five of the six conservative justices voiced varying degrees of skepticism over arguments made by the administration and Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer for Tennessee families challenging the ban.
"Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn't protect them. It didn't protect women for whole centuries," Sotomayor said in an exchange with Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice.
Quoting from that decision, Jackson noted that Virginia argued then that "the scientific evidence is substantially in doubt and, consequently, the court should defer to the wisdom of the state legislature."
Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly pressed Strangio about whether transgender people should be legally designated as a group that's susceptible to discrimination. Strangio answered that being transgender does fit that legal definition, though he acknowledged under Alito's questioning there are a small number of people who de-transition. "So it's not an immutable characteristic, is it?" Alito said.
Strangio did not retreat from his view, though he said the court did not have to decide the issue to resolve the case in his clients' favor.
There were dueling rallies outside the court in the hours before the arguments. Advocates of the ban bore signs like "Champion God's Design" and "Kids Health Matters," while others proclaimed "Fight like a Mother for Trans Rights" and "Freedom to be Ourselves."
The Biden administration and families urged justices: apply analysis embraced four years ago when it found that "sex plays an unmistakable role" in employers' decisions regarding transgender individuals.
Tennessee's law bans puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors but allows these drugs for other purposes. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar called this sex-based line drawing against drugs safely prescribed for decades.