What’s at Stake in the Supreme Court’s Next LGBTQ Case

What's at stake in U.S. v Skrmetti?

The Supreme Court will decide an important LGBTQ+ case this session.

U.S. v Skrmetti is about whether state governments can tell families with transgender kids they can't get their children health care that their doctors recommend, and that will allow them to be healthy, happy young people.

That's a pretty harmful thing for states to do. Federal courts all over the country have agreed, saying governments can't make a rule that the same safe effective medical care that is regularly used to help all kinds of kids must be denied only to transgender kids.

That's discrimination. And what the Supreme Court is going to decide in this case is whether laws like these that deny something to people just because they are transgender go against an important principle in our constitution, that all people should have equal protection under the law.

And in fact the Court has already said something on this question. Just 4 years ago in a 2020 case called Bostock, the Court said that discriminating against someone because they are transgender, or gay or lesbian or bisexual, is discrimination on the basis of sex. Laws that discriminate on the basis of sex are subject to extra scrutiny. That means governments must be able to show a really strong reason why such a law is necessary even though it discriminates against some people. If they can't show that compelling reason, the law has to go.

The fact is, states haven't been able show any compelling reason why health care that has been safely used for decades should be denied just to transgender kids. Most federal courts have recognized that is not about health care, it's about saying trans kids don't deserve to get care they need like everyone else.

But a handful of higher courts have decided to ignore that important constitutional principle that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law and say it's OK to discriminate against some people - in this case transgender people.

So now the Supreme Court is going to weigh in. There's no reason the Court should say anything different in this case than they said in Bostock in 2020. Making sure people aren't treated unfairly just because of who they are is key part of what our constitution stands for.

And that's pretty important to all of us.