Earlier this week, the State of Alabama secured a massive win at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in which the Court overturned a lower court order that had enjoined a law protecting children from chemical castration and other radical transgender procedures. America First Legal (AFL) had filed an amicus brief in support of the State of Alabama.
The “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” which became law in April 2022, makes it a felony, punishable to up to ten years in prison, to administer “gender-affirming care” to minors. “Gender-affirming care” is a euphemism for mutilating and sterilizing children, first through massive doses of untested drugs, and then through irreversible surgeries including mastectomies, hysterectomies, and castration. As a recent investigative report by Matt Walsh demonstrates, medical providers brag about the substantial profits that can be made from these horrible procedures.
The lower court accepted Constitutionally flawed arguments made by transgender advocates and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law. But the Court of Appeals overturned the injunction, holding that “none of the binding decisions regarding substantive due process establishes that there is a fundamental right to ‘treat [one’s] children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards.”” Accordingly, state regulation of the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatment for minors is afforded “a ‘strong presumption of validity.’” AFL’s amicus brief made precisely that point:
It is undisputed that the right of minor children to obtain puberty blockers or hormone therapy in an effort change their appearance in a manner that departs from their biologically assigned sex is not “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition”…The question to ask is whether the specific right at issue—the right of minor children to obtain puberty blockers or hormone therapy in an effort change their appearance in a manner that departs from their biologically assigned sex—is deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition. It obviously is not, and the plaintiffs do not argue to the contrary.
AFL will continue to stand with the State of Alabama to protect our children.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice President and General Counsel:
“We were proud to stand with the State of Alabama against the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children. The Eleventh Circuit’s decision is a powerful rebuke of judicial overreach and a strong defense of Constitutional due process,“ said Gene Hamilton.
Read the decision here.
Read AFL’s brief here.
