The United States Supreme Court set december Wednesday marks the first trial date in the gender-affirming care case, and the first time an openly transgender lawyer will appear before the high court.
in United States vs. Scumetti, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chase Strangio will argue on behalf of the families and health care providers who filed the lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors. . U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Berkus Preloger is expected to argue on behalf of President Joe Biden’s administration, which joined the challenge.
The lawsuit revolves around Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed into law in March 2023. The bill bans sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers and hormone treatments for people under 18. The following month, three families with transgender children and a doctor filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law.
The suit was originally LW vs. Scumetti, The lawsuit was filed by Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville, their now 16-year-old transgender daughter, two other plaintiff families who filed anonymously, and Dr. Susan Lacy of Memphis. They are represented by Lambda Legal, the ACLU and its Tennessee chapter, and the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The lawsuit was filed in April 2023 in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
It names Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scumetti, the Tennessee Department of Health, the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, and various other state officials as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process, as well as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits sex discrimination in health care.
The challenge is limited to prohibitions on hormone treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers, and does not include genital surgery, since genital surgery is rarely performed on minors.
“Tennessee’s ban, like other bills passed by politicians in recent years, is similar to other bills passed by politicians in recent years, in which Tennessee provides for a person’s gender if it is provided in a manner that is deemed to be “consistent with” a person’s sex assigned at birth. These same hormonal drugs are specifically permitted,” the ACLU notes on its website. “This means, for example, that a doctor can prescribe estrogen to a cisgender teenage girl for a clinical diagnosis, but cannot do the same for a transgender girl who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. .”
Strangio, National ACLU Co-Director LGBTQ The &HIV Project is “arguably our nation’s leading legal expert on the rights of transgender people,” said ACLU Legal Director Cecilia Wang. press release. “Not only is he an outstanding constitutional lawyer, he brings to the podium the tenacity and heart of a civil rights advocate. We could not have asked for a better advocate for our clients in this case.”
“There is no lawyer in this country more deserving of this landmark moment in LGBTQ history than Chase Strangio,” added James Essex, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “He argued this issue in court.” scumetti He has appeared on federal appeals courts four times, more than any other lawyer in the country. Anyone who has worked with Chase knows the intelligence, compassion, and courage he brings to every fight for plaintiffs’ rights and welfare. It has been one of the great honors of my career to work with Chase, and I have no doubt that the court will be equally impressed by his depth of knowledge, assertiveness, and empathy. ”
A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and Grinnell College, Mr. Strangio joined the ACLU in 2013 as a staff attorney. Previously, she was a Fellow at Equal Justice Works and Director of Prisoner Justice Initiatives at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. She represented transgender and gender non-conforming people in incarcerated settings. In 2012, she co-founded the Lorena Borjas Community Foundation, an organization that provides direct bail/bond assistance to LGBTQ+ immigrants in criminal and immigration cases.
he served as a legal advisor Obergefell v. Hodges Marriage Equality Litigation, ACLU and Lambda Legal’s Challenge to North Carolina’s Infamous “Bathroom Law” House Bill 2, ACLU’s Challenge to Donald Trump’s Transgender Military Ban, Bostock v. Clayton County; The result was a landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision affirming the rights of LGBTQ+ workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Since 2016, he has been a leader in developing the ACLU’s legal strategy against anti-transgender laws passed by state legislatures, including Tennessee’s ban on access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. It also includes 12 legal challenges to state laws. In June 2023, Strangio was part of a team that won a trial court on the merits of such a ban. Blunt vs. Rutledgean Arkansas lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of four families with transgender youth.
“As the Supreme Court prepares for oral arguments, there could be no greater risk to our community. USA vs. Scumetti and LW v. Scumetti” said Jennifer C. Pizer, Lambda Legal’s chief legal officer, in a statement. “As hostile national leaders prepare to further their cruel and unprecedented discriminatory attacks against transgender youth, courts have an opportunity and a duty to apply the law fairly. It means returning medical decisions to where they rightfully belong: their parents, their parents.” Children and their doctors.
“Over the coming weeks, we will be working with our co-counsel and Chase to prepare for this historic appearance in court, and we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the LW, her parents, and both of us. On behalf of the Pseudonym family, and Dr. Susan Lacy, I look forward to representing the state of Tennessee and, by extension, the many other states that have decided to target this particularly vulnerable group of youth. Interfering with very personal family medical decisions.”
Strangio recently said: time On being the first transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court. “This means that for so many communities, things are way behind where they should be,” he said. “In 2024, no group should have a first experience. …As long as I’m the first lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court, it’s no surprise that I’ll be the first white transmasculine lawyer. Because , because again, these are all just functions of power systems that make things easier or harder. Different people have access to different spaces based on the bodies we inhabit. I will make it possible.”
“I certainly feel a personal connection to this case,” he added. The central debate is not only about the legitimacy of transgender medical care, but also, in some sense, about the legitimacy of transgender people as members of civil and public life. … I believe very clearly that the only reason I am able to live the rich, fulfilling, and truly beautiful adult life that I am today is because of gender-affirming medical care, and my I feel that experience is a rebuttal to that argument. It’s what’s being made. ”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
