The assertion provides further evidence that all bodily autonomy rights are under attack.
Trudy Ring at The Advocate:
A federal appeals court has lifted a block on most of the provisions of Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, citing the anti-abortion Dobbs Supreme Court ruling in doing so. This means Alabama can enforce anti-trans law, which made it a felony to provide this care to trans minors, while a lawsuit against it proceeds. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued the unanimous ruling Monday. The three judges — Barbara Lagoa, Andrew Brasher, and J.P. Boulee — were all appointed by Donald Trump. Boulee is a judge on a lower court, but he participated in the 11th Circuit case under a process by which judges can be temporarily designated to serve on appellate courts. The Alabama law took effect early in May 2022. Shortly thereafter, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a temporary injunction blocking the provisions that ban the administration of hormones and puberty blockers to minors for the purpose of gender transition. The ruling came in a case brought by two doctors and families with trans children, who said the law violated various constitutional rights, including the right to due process of law. Burke found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on most of their claims at trial and that there was a threat of imminent harm to trans youth if those parts of the law were enforced. A federal appeals court has lifted a block on most of the provisions of Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, citing the anti-abortion Dobbs Supreme Court ruling in doing so. This means Alabama can enforce anti-trans law, which made it a felony to provide this care to trans minors, while a lawsuit against it proceeds.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued the unanimous ruling Monday. The three judges — Barbara Lagoa, Andrew Brasher, and J.P. Boulee — were all appointed by Donald Trump. Boulee is a judge on a lower court, but he participated in the 11th Circuit case under a process by which judges can be temporarily designated to serve on appellate courts. The Alabama law took effect early in May 2022. Shortly thereafter, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a temporary injunction blocking the provisions that ban the administration of hormones and puberty blockers to minors for the purpose of gender transition. The ruling came in a case brought by two doctors and families with trans children, who said the law violated various constitutional rights, including the right to due process of law. Burke found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on most of their claims at trial and that there was a threat of imminent harm to trans youth if those parts of the law were enforced.
He left intact the provision banning gender-affirming surgeries, which are not taking place in the state, and one requiring school staffers to notify parents if a student comes out as trans. Violation of the law carries a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $15,000.
But Burke used the wrong legal standard in issuing the injunction, the 11th Circuit panel asserted. “The plaintiffs have not presented any authority that supports the existence of a constitutional right to ‘treat [one’s] children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards,’” the ruling states. They cited Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade and its national guarantee of abortion rights. In Dobbs, the high court found that when determining if a right is a substantive one guaranteed by the due process clause, courts decide if it is “deeply rooted in [our] history and tradition” and “essential to our Nation’s ‘scheme of ordered liberty.’” The 11th Circuit ruling quoted those passages and asserted that “the use of these medications in general — let alone for children — almost certainly is not ‘deeply rooted’ in our nation’s history and tradition. Although there are records of transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming individuals from various points in history, the earliest recorded uses of puberty blocking medication and cross-sex hormone treatment for purposes of treating the discordance between an individual’s biological sex and sense of gender identity did not occur until well into the twentieth century.”
The right-wing 11th Circuit Court issued a very harmful ruling in Eknes-Tucker v. Alabama that allows a majority of the provisions of Alabama's gender-affirming care ban law (SB184) for trans youth to go into effect. The three-judge panel on the 11th cited the Dobbs case's "deeply rooted in history and tradition" concurrence in their harmful ruling.
See Also:
Law Dork: 11th Appeals court upholds Alabama's felony ban on minors' gender-affirming care
