Court Conservatives Not Arguing in Good Faith
Today, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments over a Tennessee law denying transition care to transgender youth. Truth Wins Out is deeply concerned that conservative members of The Court are making irrational, bad faith arguments that defy reason.
Case in point, Chief Justice John Roberts asserted: “The Constitution leaves that question to the people’s representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor.”
“How many elected members of the Tennessee state legislature are doctors?” asked Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “If a medical degree is what matters to Roberts, it reasons that doctors and families make such decisions together without interference from biased, unqualified and politically compromised lawmakers.”
On one hand, Roberts is specifying the need for medical expertise, on the other he is signaling the Court is poised to make a ruling that largely cuts medical professionals out of decision-making process. Roberts throws an irrelevant bone to the experts, while turning the issue over to extremists.
There are rational arguments and honest disagreements over the best age of medical care for transgender youth. But the points espoused by conservative Supreme Court justices today, often came across as sophistic and hollow.
The right-wing Justices seem to want Big Government involved in the most intimate medical decisions. It is particularly disturbing because the regressive Tennessee legislature is often hostile to medical opinion.
In 2022, more than 700 Tennessee doctors, nurses and other medical professionals signed an open letter asking the state’s GOP-super majority Legislature to reconsider an abortion ban that criminalizes the procedure with no exceptions and subjects doctors who perform it to prosecution, fines and prison. The medical professionals were mostly ignored and Tennessee bans abortions in most instances.
For further information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out
Email: Wbesen@TruthWinsOut.org
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization that works to protect LGBTQ+ people and advance equality by combating the spread of hate, extremism, and misinformation. Through education, research and advocacy, we strive to build a world where all individuals are free from discrimination and persecution.
