WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, America First Legal filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Eknes Tucker v. Marshall, a case in which a federal district judge purported to “enjoin” the enforcement of the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which protects children and prohibits health-care providers from providing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minor children who are being encouraged to reject their biological sex— off-label treatments that often result in irreversible sterilization, permanent sexual dysfunction and other severe health risks, such as increased risk of heart attacks and stroke, altered brain development, and psycho-social harms.
States across the country have been acting to protect children from these dangerous and harmful treatments aggressively pushed by transgender activists and the Biden Administration. Under the delusion that children have the mental and emotional capacity to consent to the disfigurement and mutilation of their bodies, as well as the ingestion of drugs that result in chemical castration, the proponents of “gender ideology” have been propagating a hazardous and harmful agenda that rejects biological reality and scientific truth.
The State of Alabama, like others, has rightly acted to protect innocent and vulnerable children from those who would subject them to sterilization and chemical castration. But predictably, the hardened ideologues from the transgender-activist world immediately sued to thwart the enforcement of Alabama’s law. A federal district court issued an order purporting to enjoin the enforcement of Alabama’s law against anyone, including parties not even before the court, and the State of Alabama appealed.
America First Legal is proud to file a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit outlining the many shortcomings with the district court’s overreaching order.
America First Legal’s brief argued that:
- The district court had no authority to enjoin the state’s officials from enforcing Alabama’s law against individuals who are not parties to this lawsuit;
- The district court repeatedly and falsely asserted that it had the power to “enjoin” the law itself, rather than the state officials charged with enforcing it;
- The district court should have severed and preserved the applications of the Alabama law that were constitutional even under the district court’s own reasoning;
- The Eleventh Circuit should clarify that the district court’s preliminary injunction does not “block” any provision of the Alabama law or prevent it from taking effect, and that the statute has remained in effect despite the district court’s injunction;
- There is no substantive due process right for minor children to obtain puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones in an effort to change their appearance in a manner that departs from their biological sex. The Supreme Court has emphasized that non-textual rights of this sort must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” That is clearly not the case here.
America First Legal asks the Eleventh Circuit to vacate the preliminary injunction and remand the case with instructions to dismiss.
Statement From America First Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton:
“America First Legal is proud to stand with the State of Alabama and any other states that are protecting children from devastating and life-altering sterilization treatments and chemical castration. The American people rightly reject the notion advanced by radical activists that children—who lack the legal capacity to even enter into a binding contract—have the capacity to make such life-altering decisions. Anyone who aids or abets these destructive procedures is inflicting irreversible and devastating harm on our nation’s youth, and we proudly support the efforts of states to protect children from these destructive actions,” Gene Hamilton said.
Read the brief here.
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