Today, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a transgender rights case from Tennessee that could have legal implications right here in Kentucky.

Tennessee passed a law that bans gender affirming care for minors.

The father suing over Tennessee's law says the ban on gender affirming care is a, quote, active threat to his transgender daughter's future.

He says she had to travel out of state to receive health care.

The court has to decide if the Tennessee law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

That clause requires equal treatment under the law.

At least 26 states, including Kentucky, have passed legislation similar similar to the Tennessee law and arguments that lasted for more than 2 hours.

Today, five of the six conservative justices voiced skepticism of arguments made by the Biden administration, and the chief Justice, John Roberts, questioned whether judges should be weighing in on the question of regulating medical procedures, an area usually left to the states to decide.

We may think that we're, you know, we can do just as good a job with respect to the evidence here, as you know, Tennessee or anybody else.

But my understanding is that the Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the assertion that the democratic process would be the best way to address objections to the law.

She cited a history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender people make up a small percentage of the US population.

When you're 1% of the population or less.

Very hard to see how the democratic process is going to protect you.

Well, Your Honor.

Blacks were a much larger part of the population and didn't protect them.

It didn't protect women for centuries.

Now we have reaction from David Walls, the executive director of the conservative Family Foundation of Kentucky.

He says, quote, For all of human history, the truth that the human person is objectively and profoundly male or female has been the cornerstone of all civilizations.

We pray that the court's decision will recognize the harms perpetrated upon children in the name of gender affirming care, and that they would rightly allow for Kentucky, Tennessee and other states to protect our most vulnerable fellow image bearers from lifelong harm.

End of quote.