BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce its ban on transgender health care for minors.
In an emergency motion to the nation’s high court, Labrador’s office asked that Idaho’s ban only be lifted only for the plaintiffs in the motion — two transgender teenagers in Idaho and their parents who have used treatments for gender dysphoria. Otherwise, the attorney general said he wants to enforce the law for the rest of the state's young people.
“The Plaintiffs both want access to a single procedure, but the injunction applies to all 20+ procedures that the VCPA (the Vulnerable Children Protection Act) regulates,” the motion states. “The Plaintiffs are two minors and their parents, and the injunction covers 2 million.”
The 45-page motion was filed with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, a nonprofit legal advocacy group that focuses on religious freedom. ADF has been involved in many legal cases related to gay and transgender issues, such as representing wedding vendors who wanted to be able to deny services to same-sex couples in a recent case.
Labrador’s motion would allow the state to enforce HB 71, a bill passed in 2023 that bans health care providers from giving treatments such as hormones, puberty blockers or performing certain surgeries, known collectively as gender-affirming care. The ban would have created felony penalties, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Idaho, Wrest Collective and other legal groups challenged the law on behalf of the two trans teens, arguing it was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill had approved an injunction on the law, which stopped it from going into effect. Labrador asked the court to lift the injunction, which was denied on Jan. 16, and the attorney general immediately appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Winmill wrote that he thought the law was likely unconstitutional.
Ninth Circuit judges Kim Wardlaw, Richard Paez and Jacquelin Nguyen denied the motion in a short ruling on Jan. 30.
Friday’s motion argues that the entire law should not have been prevented from going into effect and at least some of the procedures in the ban should still be regulated.
“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 press release. “Those suffering gender dysphoria deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality.”
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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