Supreme Court upholds Tennessee trans law (06-20-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendarshow dot com make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT seven four five seven zero eleven ten. The email is Pete at thepeteclendershow dot com on Twitter at Pete Calendar. So we had a big decision this week regarding the transgender issue. The US Supreme Court weighed in on a very narrow aspect of the debate. But this is a win for sanity. The US Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a ruling. They've got others that have come out today. I've not had a chance to look and see what are other opinions they've released today, but the one they released on Wednesday upheld laws in about half of the states that ban well. This is from the NPR affiliate in town. So this is NPR reporting by Nina Sorry, by Nina Totenberg. Gender affirming medical care. It ban gender affirming medical care. That sounds terrible. It's affirming and it's medical care. Right, it's amputating reproductive systems for transgender miners. So children it would ban, Yeah, it's it's banning trans procedures for kids. States that have decided to do this. The vote was six to three. You'll never guess how it broke down, six to three. Yeah, it was a long ideological lines. The case was brought by transgender children and their parents in Tennessee, who claimed that the state's ban on hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender miners discriminated on the basis of sex. This was their argument. They contended that they were being denied equal protection of the law because the same medications that are banned for miners with gender dysphoria are permitted for other miners with conditions like I'm going to butcher this word, I think, but it's endometriosis. I think I got that right. And early onset puberty or late onset puberty. See. So their argument was that if I'm a fourteen year old boy, and I'm getting testosterone because I have my puberty is not beginning for me or something, and so they recommend that I get some hormone treatments. They give me some testosterone. And their argument was that, well, I'm a girl and I want testosterone, so why can't I have it? And the state says I can't. The state bans me from getting it, and that's sex discrimination because you're giving it to a boy, you're not giving it to a girl. See sex discrimination. So they do recognize a different Yeah, But writing for the Conservative courts, super majority Chief Justice John Roberts rejected that argument entirely. He said that laws like Tennessees that turn on age. So it's about age, and it's about medical use. What is the drug being being used to address? And because that's the way the state wrote the law, they are the law is not subject to this higher legal scrutiny. Okay, the courts have different levels of legal scrutiny. I don't know why I'm saying it like scrutiny. I want scrutiny anyway. That kind of heightened scrutiny is what the court uses to look at things like workplace sex discrimination instead, though, because it's about age or medical use, the court applied the lowest level of legal scrutiny, which is called rational basis, meaning that if there's any rational justification for the law, then it passes constitutional muster and there is a rational justification for the law. He acknowledged the quote fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and the propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. Roberts said it's not the court's job to judge the wisdom or fairness of Tennessee's law. The court's job, he said, is only to determine whether the law violates the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Having concluded that the law does not unconstitutionally discriminate, the Court leaves these policy questions to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process. Now, states that allow these procedures they can continue to do so. This is a concept that maybe folks over on the left may not be aware of this. This concept is called federalism. States are allowed to do different things. If a state decides they don't want this particular thing, they say we don't want that thing, and they ban it. As long as it's not unconstitutional. While the court's majority opinion gave states broad powers to ban or regulate transgender medical care for minors, it left unresolved a number of questions that very likely will reach the Supreme Court in the next term. Among those, there's a challenge to Trump's ban on transgender people in the military. There's a challenge to the administration's policy denying passports for transgender individuals unless they list as their gender unless they're listed as their gender as their sex at birth, so you can't change your gender for your password for your passport. There's also cases involving bans on transgender participation in school sports. Federal law bars discrimination based on sex in any education program or activity that receives federal funding, so the left is to try to completely obliterate female sports. John Bursch, who argued and won the case on behalf of the Conservative Alliance Defending Freedom or the ADF, said that about half the states have adopted laws that prohibit boys who identify as girls from participating in girls' sports teams, and he said two of those cases are currently pending before the US Supreme Court, and then even farther down the road. There's another question as to whether states can ban medical care for transitioning adults. I think there would be a rational basis too also prohibited for adults, he said, and that would be up to the states to decide. Justice Thomas Clarence Thomas, he called out the courts in a concurring opinion for assuming that quote self described experts are always correct. He said, this case carries a simple lesson. In politically contentious debates over matters shrouded in scientific uncertainty, courts should not assume that self described experts are correct. Right. This is not settled. This is shrouded in scientific uncertainty, and the left wanted the courts to shut it all down to say we're certain, believe us we're experts, and he says, Clarence Thomas says that we are not experts. And just because you say you're an expert doesn't mean you are. Because the whole field is unsettled. Courts should defer to legislatures over experts, he said. The courts should, saying medical professionals quote declared to consensus around the efficacy of treating children's gender dysphoria with puberty blockers cross sex hormones and surgical interventions, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. They have dismissed grave problems undercutting the assumption that young children can consent to irreversible treatments that may deprive them of their ability to eventually produce children of their own. They have built their medical determinations on weak evidence, and they have surreptitiously compromised their medical recommendations to achieve political ends. He's exactly right, He's exactly right. The corruption of like the American Academy of Pediatrics WPATH it is grotesque, absolutely grotesque. They embarked upon a political mission, sacrificing their reputations, their credibility, and kids. He said, States have an interest in ensuring that minor patients have the time and capacity to fully understand the irreversible treatments they may undergo. This is why I said the question was about age, not sex. It's about age and the kids be being that young cannot consent because they don't understand. We have age restrictions on all sorts of things for this very reason. Well, if I'm a parent, I want to let my kids smoke cigarettes, I should be allowed to. I want them to drink alcohol. No, no, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news, slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news, slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Alrighty, So the Supreme Court upholds the Tennessee law that bans childhood trans surgeries and pharmaceutical interventions and such. This is from Jane Coleman at Legal insurrection dot com talking about the six' three. Ruling she, said back In, JANUARY i predicted how The court would rule and why it would rule that. Way THE Us Supreme court will Uphold tennessee's transgender care ban for miners because the law does not discriminate based on. Sex the restrictions in the law are based on age and, use and so that treats both sexes. Equally and because transgender care is a hotly debated area of, medicine The court will rule that it should be left to lawmakers who take expert testimony and are accountable to the people they, represent not. Judges the states will determine state, policy the state, legislatures the. Governor, so she, says it came as some relief yesterday When Chief Justice roberts joined by the other five conservative justices and over the descent Of, Kagan, sotomayor And, jackson they reach the same conclusion for the same. Reasons in The Tennessee, Statute Senate bill one doctors are forbidden from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to children until they turn. Eighteen Sex change surgeries for miners are also prohibited by the, statute although they were not directly ch challenged in the lawsuit because that would be a much more difficult case to. Argue, Right, no we have to let this twelve year old mutilate their bodies for the rest of their, lives you. Know so they didn't sue over. That they just sued OVER i just want some hormone. Therapy the court held that The Tennessee band did not violate the Equal protection clause by discriminating based on sex because it does not discriminate based on. Sex, again its distinctions are based on age and. Use it prohibits healthcare providers from administering puberty blockers and hormones to. Miners so there's your age and for certain medical uses regardless of a miner's. Sex, Right, so if a twelve year, old let me, say a fourteen year old girl has early onset puberty or late onset, puberty, whatever she can get the hormones needed to treat that. Condition, however if a boy goes in there asking for the estrogen without any kind of underlying diagnosis of you, know early onset puberty or. Whatever they. Cannot they, cannot because that's not to treat the thing that they've. Got if they have a diagnosis that they, hey you, know they're sixteen years old and they haven't started puberty. Yet, okay we need some. Testosterone no, no, NO i want estrogen Because i'm. Trans, well that's not the treatment for delayed onset, puberty. Right the court also ruled that the law doesn't discriminate against transgender individuals because it doesn't classify based on transgender. Status and Again Clarence thomas rejected the government's arguments for deferring to the quote authority of the expert Class he said before this, court THE us government asserted that overwhelming evidence supports the use of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for treating pediatric gender, dysphoria and that this view represents the quote overwhelming consensus of the medical. Community but he says the treatments at issue are subject to a rapidly evolving debate that demonstrates a lack of medical consensus over their risks and their benefits under these. Conditions it is imperative that the courts treat state legislation with a strong presumption of. Validity Judge alito. Agreed he, said our role is not to judge the, wisdom the, fairness or the logic of the law before, us but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of The Fourteenth. Amendment having concluded that it does, not we leave questions regarding its policy to the, people their elected, representatives and the democratic. Process, now some were very disappointed that The court did not do more to end these life altering trans. Treatments but While tennessee's victory is a victory for all states with similar, bands the court's limited ruling does not go any. Further but here's the. Thing it, shouldn't because that's what the law was. About. Right blue states that still subject their youth to these, risky, irreversible unscientific procedures have nobody to blame but. Themselves they are allowing it to. Occur their legislatures are allowing it to. Occur, now there was A New York times piece on the recent history of the trans. Movement because this ruling has now got a lot of people inside that movement wondering did we go too? Far and of course the answers always know because the left can't go too. Far there is no too far for the. Left but at least The New York times has gotten around to documenting this. Chronology we'll run through it in a. Minute here's a great. Idea how about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in Western North. Carolina just a quick drive up the mountain And cabins Of ashville is your. Connection whether you're celebrating an, anniversary a, honeymoon maybe you want to plan a memorable, proposal or get family and friends together for a big old, Reunion cabins Of asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly. Matter nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of The Pisga National, forest their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of The Blue Ridge. Mountains centrally located Between asheville and the entrance of The Great Smoky Mountain National. Park it's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local. 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TIMES i, KNOW i, know BUT i don't, Subscribe and SO i WAS i could not read the entire, writeup SO i read excerpts of the entire excerpts of the article in various write ups from people who apparently do pay for The New York times. Subscription one of them is Hot Air John, sexton and he says that a theme emerges in the telling of the story that the far left got way out of touch with Most americans on this issue in ways that completely undermined their initial wins in. Court New york Or North CAROLINA'S hb two gets an honorable mention in the in this. Story by the, way in, Particular sexton says THE, aclu which sued over this and argued in front of The Supreme, court the a C lu made some dubious choices which they may now regret in, private though publicly they are still claiming this was all a plot by THE maga, right not THE maga. Right boiled, again the a c L u, said uh or. Sorry Anthony, romero the ACLU's executive, director Told The New York, times, QUOTE i didn't pick this fight around trans. Rights the right wing conservatives of THE MAGA gop have made this one of their cause celebree issues as a way to kind of scapegoat individuals as a way to score cheap political. Points see so THE aclu did not drive. This THE, aclu they didn't pick this. Fight the left did not pick this. Fight this was THE maga right that picked the fight of, okay. All, right all, Right. We're Not we're not going to do this every, time all. Right so that's their. Story that's THE aclu story, there sticking to. It but almost everything else in the story undermines that very self serving. Claim THE aclu was in fact driving this bus from one victory to another until a majority Of americans finally said, enough AS i would, say if you're going to use the driving the, bus they stormed the, cockpit if you, will, Right they rushed the front of the bus Like Keanu reeves did in that documentary Called, speed and took control of the bus along the road to this. Ruling this it's called The scremetti case because that's The Attorney general Of. Tennessee along the. Road some believe THE lgbtq movement drove itself towards a cliff and took The Democrat party with, it chaining The biden administration to one of the most divisive issues In american politics at a moment of shifting medical consensus and fierce. Polarization according To The New York, times who Quotes Brianna, wu a, transwoman so a dude who serves on the board Of Rebellion Political Action Committee Rebellion, pack A democrat political action. Committee wu, said it's one of the biggest mistakes in the history of, transactivism which admittedly is not a very long. History BUT i know some would beg to differ with, that BUT i stand by. It what follows in The New York times piece is a long and detailed account of how The Dutch, protocol which we've talked about in years, past how that got adopted by gender clinics around the, world and how along with it came radical redefinitions of basic concepts like sex and. Gender The New York times, reports for, decades trans usually referred to people of one sex who sought medical treatment to help them pass as someone of the opposite. Sex within activist, circles, though that idea began to give way to a concept called self id self identification right routing gender identity in bodily. Autonomy in the wider, culture, though concepts of gender were becoming dizzyingly capacious or. Spacious there were so many of them and even. Confusing, right do you remember the first time you heard this? Stuff non binary. Cisgender by the mid twenty, Tens time magazine declared That america had reached a transgender tipping. POINT a transperson might identify as male or, female or neither gender. Fluid the phrase sex assigned at, birth originally devised to classify babies that were born with ambiguous genitalia or other rare congenital, disorders was now employed to suggest that biological sex was completely, arbitrary even a kind of. Fiction, really, oh that's just what the doctor called. You physicians increasingly then advocated a gender affirming a. Coach in twenty, eighteen the gender affirming model was endorsed by The American academy Of, pediatrics one of the country's most influential medical. Groups, again The New York times, reports some doctors and activists went. Further in a twenty nineteen journal, article the trans Bioethicist Florence ashley argued that trans, people including older, teenagers should not require a formal diagnosis of dysphoria before gaining access to cross sex, hormones because that was The dutch. Protocol you had to have the diagnosis, first and then they were, like screw, that we don't need any. Diagnosis rather than relieving supposed. Distress this transgender bioethicist wrote that patients might be seeking a quote gender euphoria or creative, transfiguration which sees the body as a gendered art piece that can be made hours through transition related. Interventions see there is no limiting principle to. Leftism it can never go too. Far it. Can't it just keeps. Going what do they always say on the? Left, forward progress. Forward we're just gonna keep, going keep, going keep. Going it can never go too. Far the only time it can go too far is when people say you've gone too, far and now give me the. 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Deserves Creative Video Preserving Family memories since nineteen ninety, seven located in Mint, hill just off four eighty. Five mail orders are accepted to get all the details that createavideo Dot Com News talk, eleven ten ninety nine to THREE, wbt reading From John sexton's piece at hot air dot com about The New York times article how the transgender rights movement bet on The Supreme court and lost one of the people who held the maximalist views on you, know trans, ideology person by the name Of Chase, strangeo who was the. Lawyer That's chase Strange, geo the lawyer who joined THE aclu and wound up arguing The scrematti case before THE Us Supreme. Court and by the, way that's not her real. Name she ditched her real name took the Name chase Strange geo when she went did underwent the. Transition so interesting story that's included in The New York times. Piece in twenty, sixteen When North carolina passed a bathroom bill requiring trans people to use the bathroom of their birth, sex the left responded with A tv. Ed in a spot that first aired On Fox, news the woman is barred from a restaurant bathroom by an angry, manager who backs down after two other women. Intercede the trans woman says in a, VOICEOVER i was born with a male, body but INSIDE i always KNEW i was, female And Chase strangio found that. OFFENSIVE i actually have argued With Chase strangio back during this twenty SIXTEEN hb two debate before she was ever with THE. Aclu strangio found this ad to be offensive because it wasn't radical. Enough according to two people present for the, Discussion strangio disputed that a trans woman could be born with a male body or born. Male In strangio's, view a trans woman was born a woman just like any other. Woman there was no such thing as a male. Body strangio told his her. Colleagues this is What strangeo. Said. QUOTE a penis is not a male body. Part it's just an on you usual body part for a. WOMAN i don't even why would it be, Unusual chase Strange, eo what makes it? Unusual before the advertisement, Aired strangeo elaborated on this critique in an article published over at slate dot. Com. Quote many advocates defend the use of the born mail or born with a male body narrative as being easier for non trans people to understand. It of, course it is easier to understand since it reinforces deeply entrenched views about what makes a man and what makes a. Woman but it is precisely these views that we must. Change the. Left John sexton says the left won the battle In North carolina and the bathroom bill was, overturned then they kept moving. Forward on his first day in, Office biden signed in order mandating that executive agencies interpret the word sex in all federal anti discrimination law to include gender. Identity so this covered prisons and schools and all other institutions and such more or. Less BY, fiat the administration had deemed self identification the law of the land and then comes the, pushback and it really started after. This it turned out a lot of voters were not upset about trans adults using a, bathroom but they drew the line when it came to. Children from The New York times Piece Terry, shilling president of The American Principles, project a conservative advocacy, group they, Said Terry shilling, says there wasn't much of a difference in where people were on sports than where they were on sex changes for. Miners but we could not get politicians to talk about sex changes for kids until the fight around sports got. Started that's what shifted. Things now politicians could talk about it in. Respect sponds to this, backlash groups LIKE wpath began making transparently political, decisions writing their guidelines in such a way that they could be held up in court to defeat state. Bans but some people inside that organization saw what was happening and called it, out Including Marcy, bauers a surgeon WITH wpath their president, elect as Well Erica, anderson a psychologist former president OF. Wpath but they continued down the. Path they even Allowed Rachel levine to push them into deleting age limits from the twenty twenty two. GUIDELINES i talked about that when it. Happened, meanwhile THE aclu had decided to take The tennessee case to The Supreme. Court by the time they got to oral arguments Last, December Chase strangio was actually using the term born mail in the oral. Arguments the loss In scremette has some trans people now wondering if it isn't time to Abandon strangio style. Extremism that brand of trans politics is looking more like a dead end these, days as polls show solid majorities are against the more extreme manifestations of these. Ideas but even now anyone who takes a different view has to contend with the far left dead enders who see any compromise as. Unacceptable But sexton, concludes it's good to see The New York times chronicling this story in a way that admits a few key, Points and the first is that it was not the right that started this. Push it was the. Left they, pushed and they, pushed and they won for years in court they won and. Won and one just as what happened with the adoption of the defund the police people eventually, decided you know, what that's too far that's a bit. Much we shall see what happens with the other cases related to this because they're in the. Pipeline all. Right that'll do it for this. Episode than thank you so much for. LISTENING i could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the, podcast so if you'd, like please support them too and tell them you heard it. Here you can also become a patron at My patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot. Com, again thank you so much for, listening and don't break anything While i'm. Gone