From sports to birth certificates, Supreme Court to confront more anti-transgender policies

Just days after the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in one of its most important cases of the year, the justices must now decide the fate of other anti-trans policies.

Just days after the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in one of its most important cases of the year, the justices must now decide the fate of other anti-trans policies. As soon as Monday, the nine are set to confront six separate cases that have languished on their docket — some for over a year and a half — including several appeals that deal with whether transgender athletes can play on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The high court’s 6-3 ruling this month in US v. Skrmetti delivered a significant legal setback for trans youth and their advocates, who have spent years litigating against health care bans that have been enacted in more than half the country. But the decision was ultimately limited to questions about health care and left other key legal issues for the trans community unresolved. “The whole gamut of discrimination against trans folks really is at the place where it was before Skrmetti,” said Josh Block, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who represents plaintiffs in some of the pending appeals. “Skrmetti resolves a hugely important issue, but they resolve it in a way that is narrow and doesn’t have an immediate fallout for other types of discrimination.” The court could agree this week to hear arguments in the backlog of cases dealing with trans issues — putting transgender rights front and center for a second year in a row. It could also dispose of the cases summarily, which would mean requiring lower courts to review their decisions in light of Skrmetti. In addition to the sports issue, the justices are juggling appeals that deal with health insurance plans that deny coverage for gender-affirming care and an executive order signed by the governor of Oklahoma that bars the state health department from allowing anyone to alter the sex or gender on their birth certificate.