Labrador asks US Supreme Court to let Idaho ban on gender-affirming care go into effect

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce its ban on gender-affirming health care for minors.

The request comes less than two months after the country’s highest court, which is dominated by conservative justices, sided with Labrador in a separate case over Idaho’s abortion laws, allowing the state to enforce its ban even in emergencies.

State lawmakers passed a law banning hormone treatments for minors last year, which was set to go into effect Jan. 1. But a federal judge in Idaho temporarily blocked the law days before it was set to be enforced and argued that the prohibition likely violated the 14th Amendment. Judges at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Labrador’s request to overrule that ban late last month.

Labrador argued that the plaintiffs in the case, two transgender children and their parents, “want access to a single procedure” but that the court stay in place prohibits the entire law from going into effect. Plaintiffs in their court filings have asked courts to prohibit enforcement of the entire law.

“Those suffering gender dysphoria deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality,” Labrador said in a news release. “Denying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and, thankfully, we as the state have the power — and duty — to protect them.”

Labrador has contracted with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, and prominent Washington, D.C., law firm Cooper & Kirk to work on the case.

In November, families with transgender children appealed a lawsuit over a similar Kentucky law to the U.S. Supreme Court.