Supreme Court Rejects Challenge of Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause in United States v. Skrmetti
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in United States v. Skrmetti. The case concerns a challenge to a Tennessee law that regulates gender-dysphoria treatments for minors. The law was challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause as sex-based discrimination.
A majority of the Supreme Court, however, rejected the challenge. It held that the law turns on only age and medical use—not sex. For the majority, it didn’t matter that the law contained sex-based terms like “androgen” and “estrogen,” nor did the majority rely on Bostock v. Clayton County’s reasoning in the case. Instead, the law turned on the patient’s age and the patient’s medical condition.
As such, according to the Court, the Tennessee law only needed to satisfy rational-basis review, which it easily did. States receive wide berth in regulating medical treatments, especially for minors. In fact, other countries, like Sweden, Norway, and Finland, have taken a more cautious approach to gender-dysphoria treatments, unlike the approach taken by groups like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society.
Skrmetti is significant. Many states, like Florida, passed laws like Tennessee’s, and like Tennessee’s, those laws have been challenged in court. The Skrmetti decision saves those laws from heightened constitutional scrutiny, and will allow states to continue to pass laws to protect their citizens from experimental medical treatments especially when those treatments are intended for vulnerable populations like minors.
