Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is celebrating a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a statewide ban in Tennessee of certain “gender-affirming” procedures for minors.
The 6-3 decision in the United States v. Skrmetti case came down Wednesday and upheld Tennessee’s law imposing age-based restrictions on access to sex-change procedures against an Equal Protection Clause challenge by the Biden Administration and the ACLU.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said this decision “recognizes that the Constitution lets us fulfill society’s highest calling – protecting our kids.”
The decision clears the way for enforcement of similar laws in Alabama and other states. Alabama’s law bans doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries to children for the purpose of gender transition.
“Until a few years ago, the notion of providing sex-change procedures to children was practically unthinkable,” Marshall said. “So was the idea that the judiciary is the best branch to sort through the evidence and decide that kids suffering from gender-related psychological distress must be allowed to take powerful hormones that risk permanently changing their bodies and leaving them sterilized.”
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) also praised the ruling, calling it a “BIG WIN for common sense and our children.”
BIG WIN for common sense and our children.
Thank you, SCOTUS!https://t.co/bAgsMJ5zZK
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) June 18, 2025
Alabama enacted its law restricting access to sex-change procedures for minors in 2022 and was immediately sued by the Biden Administration and well-funded activist organizations like the ACLU and SPLC.
As part of that lawsuit, Alabama engaged in extensive court-ordered discovery regarding the reliability of the “Standards of Care” promulgated by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that American medical organizations and plaintiffs across the country told courts to defer to.
The documents Marshall received in discovery from WPATH showed a medical, legal, and political scandal about the Standards, and plaintiffs challenging Alabama’s law dismissed their claims in full.
“I applaud the Supreme Court for recognizing that state governments have the authority and responsibility to regulate medicine in the face of medical interest groups that have placed radical gender ideology over evidence-based medicine and patient welfare,” Marshall added.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
