The U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out a lower court’s blockage of Idaho’s “Vulnerable Child Protection Act.”
The law was passed in 2023 as HB 71 and was sponsored by Idaho Representative Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa). The Statement of Purpose” said the following about the law:
“The Vulnerable Child Protective Act would prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries for children under the age of 18 when administered or performed for the purpose of changing the appearance of a child’s sex.
These medical and surgical interventions can cause irreversible
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physical alterations; and some render the patient sterile or with lifelong sexual dysfunction, while others mutilate healthy body organs. This legislation also provides for exemptions for medically necessary uses of these drugs and procedures.”
Late last year, Federal Judge Lynn Winmill blocked the bill from taking effect on January 1st. Winmill stated that the bill violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
In February, Idaho’s Attorney General, Raul Labrador, filed an emergency motion for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
In an opinion released by the U.S. Supreme Court, they overturned Winmill’s decision. However, the individuals who filed the case will be allowed to continue taking the drugs prescribed to them by their doctors.
Much of the Supreme Court’s opinion was focused on something other than whether the law should be legal but rather on the broadness of the lower court’s decision to ban the entire law from being implemented throughout the state.
Additionally, some of the justices took issue with what they said was a rise in “emergency” requests for the Supreme Court to intervene in lower court decisions before they had gone through the appeal’s court process.
You can read the Supreme Court’s opinion on Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act here.
