This story is republished from NM Political Report, a nonprofit news outlet, as a part of our commitment to bringing you the best in independent news coverage that matters to Albuquerque.

By Susan Dunlap

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it will hear oral arguments in a case over whether Tennessee and Kentucky anti-transgender laws violate the Constitution. 

Tennessee enacted a law in 2023 that bans gender-affirming healthcare for youth under 18. Three teenagers who have begun gender-affirming healthcare in Tennessee, along with their parents and a Tennessee doctor who treats transgender patients, filed suit in federal district court to challenge the law. 

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to consider the case and also filed a challenge. 

Kentucky passed a similar law in 2023 and enacted it with a majority vote in the Kentucky legislature over Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. A group of teenagers who are transgender, and their parents, also sued in Kentucky.

But the Kentucky law goes further, banning surgery for transgender youth, as well as puberty blockers and hormone treatment to minors under the age of 18.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that placed a stay on the bans before they became law. The U.S. DOJ, and the plaintiffs, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. 

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that the Tennessee law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and that the law is sex discrimination. According to Prelogar’s filing, 19 states have enacted laws over the last three years that prohibit gender-affirming healthcare. 

New Mexico passed the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Healthcare Law in 2023 that prohibits public bodies from discriminating against gender-affirming care. Though there was an effort by a conservative group to recall the law, that effort failed. Supreme Court watchers have said that the court will likely take up the case in the fall but will not issue a decision until about a year from now.