Volume 405, Issue 10497
28 June 2025
WORLD REPORT Conservative justices agreed with the state and Trump administration that banning minors’ treatment for gender dysphoria is not discriminatory. Susan Jaffe reports.
On behalf of the court’s five other conservative members, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the law is not discriminatory because the ban restricts specific medical treatment for a specific purpose and applies equally to boys and girls. “The law does not prohibit conduct for one sex that it permits for the other.” But he also wrote that since the treatment is controversial (despite support from major medical associations), the court should defer to the judgement of state lawmakers. “Questions regarding the law’s policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process”, he wrote.[Continued here.]