WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court of the United States issued a partial stay today against a statewide preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, allowing the law to be enforced against families and medical providers other than the plaintiffs in this case while that case proceeds in the District Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho issued the following joint statement:
“While the Court’s ruling today importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state. Today’s ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption. Nonetheless, today’s result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family.”
In a lawsuit filed in May 2023, two Idaho families assert that HB 71, signed into law by Gov. Brad Little, violates the rights of transgender youth and their parents under the U.S. Constitution. In December 2023, a federal district court judge found the families likely to succeed in their challenge and blocked enforcement of HB 71 while the case goes forward, issuing a preliminary injunction.
After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Idaho’s request for a stay of the injunction to allow the ban to take effect while the appeal proceeds, Idaho asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue the partial stay granted today and allow the state to generally enforce HB 71 while the appeal is pending.
Poe v. Labrador was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Idaho, W/rest Collective, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone LLP.
Poe v. Labrador is a part of the ACLU’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Supreme Court Docket.