An order from the court instructed appellate judges to review cases from Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia that pertain to medical care access and birth certificates.
WASHINGTON — Following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling supporting a Tennessee prohibition on specific medical procedures for transgender minors, the court invalidated appellate decisions that favored transgender individuals in four states.
However, the court did not make a decision regarding cases from Arizona, Idaho, and West Virginia regarding the inclusion of transgender students in school sports teams. A determination on whether the court will address this issue in the upcoming term could be announced as early as Thursday.
The high court ordered appellate judges to reexamine cases from Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia involving access to medical care and birth certificates.
The action was unsurprising because the court had set the cases aside until after it decided the Tennessee case, as typically happens when the same legal issue is being considered.
The rulings all included findings that the restrictions on transgender people imposed by the states violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
In the Tennessee case, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional violation in a state law prohibiting puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria in people younger than 18.
The justices ordered the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, to review its decision that West Virginia’s and North Carolina’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will get back a case from Idaho stemming from the state’s ban on certain surgical procedures for Medicaid recipients.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will review its ruling blocking an Oklahoma ban on people changing their gender on birth certificates.
In one other case, from Kentucky, the justices rejected the appeal of transgender minors and their families challenging that state’s ban on gender-affirming care.
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