The U.S. Supreme Court opened its 2024-25 session October 7 with at least 10 LGBTQ-related petitions before it. Seven of those petitions involve transgender issues: Four ask whether states can limit a minor's access to treatment for gender dysphoria, and three ask whether states can ban transgender females from participating in female sports competitions.
Of those 10 LGBTQ-related cases, the court agreed to hear two of them and refused to hear two others this session. Six others await disposition.
The Supreme Court announced October 4 that it will review the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in a case in which a straight employee challenges lower court rulings that say she cannot sue under a law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. In the other matter, the court has taken up a case from Tennessee to decide whether states can ban minors from receiving treatment for gender dysphoria.
In the discrimination case, Ames v. Ohio, Marlean Ames, a straight female employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, filed a lawsuit after two gay co-workers were chosen for positions she sought or held and then she was demoted. Ames' lawsuit said she was the victim of sexual orientation discrimination. But both the district court and a 6th Circuit panel ruled against her, noting that she offered "no evidence other than her own experience." In her appeal, Ames' attorneys argue that the 6th Circuit and four other courts of appeals require majority-group plaintiffs to prove — in addition to the other elements of Title VII — "background circumstances to support the suspicion that the defendant is that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority."
Tennessee case
The Supreme Court, in June, indicated it would accept the Biden administration's appeal of another 6th Circuit decision: U.S. v. Skrmetti.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the appeal to the high court after the 6th Circuit ruled that the state of Tennessee could enforce a ban against medical treatment of gender dysphoria in any minor in the state. Specifically, noted the DOJ, the Tennessee law prohibits any treatment that would enable a minor to "identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex. ..." And the law prohibits any treatment for a minor's "purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."
Nineteen states have laws that bar treatment of minors for gender dysphoria. More than 50 transgender adults, including actor Elliot Page, filed a brief in support of the Biden administration. And several LGBTQ legal organizations, including GLBT Legal Advocates and Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, submitted a brief in support of the U.S. government's appeal. Members of Congress, including 11 senators and 153 members of the House, also submitted a brief in support of the government's case.
The Supreme Court has not yet set the dates for oral arguments in the two cases it has accepted.
In June, the court refused to take up the appeals of two cases seeking to determine whether states can ban transgender females from participating in women's and girls sports competitions. The cases are Department of Education v. Louisiana and Department of Education v. Tennessee.
Other cases pending
There are other cases pending. In Mahmoud v. Montgomery County, three sets of parents have appealed a decision from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that held public schools did not have to give parents an opportunity to opt out their children from classroom books that discussed sexuality. The parents said this violated their right to free exercise of religion; the 4th Circuit panel disagreed, saying the parents were free to exercise their beliefs and teach their children anything they wanted. The books that prompted the conflict were LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks for elementary school children. (Status: Montgomery County, Maryland, has until October 16 to file its brief in opposition to the parents' petition that the high court hear their appeal.)
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, seeking to return to the White House, has made treatment for gender dysphoria a somewhat common complaint in his remarks at campaign rallies. In his second visit to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of an attempted assassination of Trump in July, he rattled off a mind-numbing list of likely impossible campaign promises such as making sure everyone can afford "groceries, a beautiful car, and a home," "build a defense shield around our country," and "keep critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools." After rambling on some more, Trump said, as president, he would "keep men out of women's sports" because "it's so demeaning to women."
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