In Brandt v. Rutledge, (8th Cir., Aug. 25, 2022), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an Arkansas district court's grant of a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Arkansas' ban on healthcare professionals providing gender transition procedures to anyone under 18, or referring minors for such procedures. Finding that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause, the court said in part:
[U]nder the Act, medical procedures that are permitted for a minor of one sex are prohibited for a minor of another sex. A minor born as a male may be prescribed testosterone or have breast tissue surgically removed, for example, but a minor born as a female is not permitted to seek the same medical treatment. Because the minor’s sex at birth determines whether or not the minor can receive certain types of medical care under the law, Act 626 discriminates on the basis of sex.
Arkansas’s characterization of the Act as creating a distinction on the basis of medical procedure rather than sex is unpersuasive.
Arkansas Times reports on the decision.
