Early this morning, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a stay of a district court's preliminary injunction against portions of Tennessee's newly enacted law largely prohibiting pharmaceutical and surgical gender-affirming treatments for minors. Writing for the panel in L.W. v. Skrmetti, Chief Judge Sutton (joined by Judge Thapar) concluded that the district court was wrong to issue a preliminary injunction, largely because the legal challenge–which sought to declare the statute unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment–was unconstitutional. Judge White concurred in part and dissented in part.
Chief Judge Sutton's opinion summarizes the decision:
Tennessee enacted a law that prohibits healthcare providers from performing gender-affirming surgeries and administering hormones or puberty blockers to transgender minors. After determining that the law likely violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, the district court facially enjoined the law's enforcement as to hormones and puberty blockers and applied the injunction to all people in the State. Tennessee appealed and moved for an emergency stay of the district court's order. Because Tennessee is likely to succeed on its appeal of the preliminary injunction, we grant the stay.
