SC allows enforcement of ban on gender-affirming care for minors in Idaho

The Supreme Court allowed Idaho, United States to go ahead with the enforcement of a new law which prohibits gender-affirming care for minors on Monday (April 15).

The decision was taken by a divided Supreme Court after two lower federal courts upheld an injunction against the gender-affirming care law even though litigation over the law's constitutionality continued.

All six conservative members of the high court backed the decision. Meanwhile, three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - hinted that they may have kept the law on hold.

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"Ordinarily, injunctions like these may go no further than necessary to provide interim relief to the parties," wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch, in a statement which concurred with the decision of the court.

"In this case, however, the district court went much further, prohibiting a state from enforcing any aspect of its duly enacted law against anyone," he added.

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However, the court permitted the parents and two children who had filed the case against the law to continue taking treatments as litigation continues.

In this case, the children have been seeking estrogen and puberty blockers, which according to the families and their doctors is important for mental health.

Supreme Court's decision faces opposition

Meanwhile, opposing the decision, Jackson said that the high court should not have intervened at such an initial stage in such a high-profile case, disrupting what she said was the legal status quo.

"In my view, we should resist being conscripted into service when our involvement amounts to micromanaging the lower courts' exercise of their discretionary authority in the midst of active litigation," wrote Jackson.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho released a joint statement and called the ruling an "awful result."

"While the court's ruling today importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state," read the joint statement.

"Today's ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption. Nonetheless, today's result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family," it added.

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Meanwhile, Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who had appealed to the court to permit enforcement, issued another statement after the decision.

"The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that's why I'm proud to defend Idaho's law that ensures children are not subjected to these life-altering drugs and procedures," Labrador said in a statement.

"Those suffering from gender dysphoria deserve love, support and medical care rooted in biological reality. Denying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and I'm grateful that we, as the state, have the power -- and duty -- to protect them," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)