The U.S. Department of Justice dropped a Biden-era challenge to a Tennessee law prohibiting the use of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones and experimental sex-change surgeries to address gender dysphoria in minors following a ruling last month from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Monday that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, stating that the Trump administration “will no longer be in the business of attacking laws like Tennessee’s that protect children.”
Bondi highlighted the high court’s ruling last month in United States v. Skrmetti, in which the justices ruled 6-3 that Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 passed in March 2023 did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The court rejected the arguments from trans activists and the Biden administration.
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Bondi said the Supreme Court ruling upheld a law that protects “vulnerable children from genital mutilation and other so-called ‘gender-affirming care,'” stressing that the ruling was the “right decision.”
“The United States today undid one of the injustices the Biden administration inflicted upon the country by dismissing a lawsuit against a Tennessee law that protects minors from invasive and mutilating procedures,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “The Justice Department will continue to fight to protect the health and welfare of our children and defend states that seek to ban these barbaric practices.”
The plaintiffs who challenged the law in April 2023 contend that restricting so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The DOJ, under the Biden administration, intervened as plaintiffs to support the case. But, in February, at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the Justice Department submitted a letter to the court stating that the U.S. government “has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic.”
“In light of the United States’ determination that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Skrmetti, the United States’ participation in this matter no longer serves the “statutory purpose” set forth in [in statute],” Monday’s notice of voluntary dismissal reads.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Skrmetti did not automatically terminate the U.S. government’s complaint and intervention, but Monday’s notice effectively does.
“The United States’ complaint in intervention is hereby dismissed with prejudice,” the notice states, which means that the intervention cannot be refiled.
In recent years, more than two dozen states have enacted laws or policies that prohibit medical professionals from performing or overseeing surgical or hormonal interventions for children with gender dysphoria.
Throughout Trump’s second term, his administration has taken several actions to prohibit minors from receiving experimental and life-altering hormonal and surgical interventions.
In January, Trump signed an executive order stating that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The administration also opposed allowing men who identify as female to compete in women’s sports. Trump has threatened to withdraw funding from schools and states that permit male athletes to compete in women’s sports. The issue that is at the center of two cases the Supreme Court will hear in the upcoming term.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments concerning legal challenges to laws passed in Idaho and West Virginia aimed at protecting fairness in women’s sports, with a final opinion expected in June 2026.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
