Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson compares transgender surgeries on children to interracial marriage at Supreme Court arguments

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued Wednesday that bans on transgender surgeries for children are similar to bans on interracial marriage.

Jackson argued that one of the state bans on child transgender surgeries appeared to depend on an argument of classification that seemed similar to that used by states in the past on interracial marriage. The court is hearing arguments about transgender surgeries after the Biden Department of Justice sued Tennessee for banning the practice in March 2023.

‘There is absolutely a parallel between any law that says you can’t act inconsistent with a protected characteristic.’

“The question was whether it was discriminatory because it applied to both races and it wasn’t necessarily invidious or whatever, but as I read the statute here, asking the case here, the court starts off by saying that Virginia is now one of 16 states which prohibit and punish marriages on the basis of racial classifications,” said Jackson.

“And when you look at the structure of that law, it looks in terms of you can’t do something that is inconsistent with your own characteristics. It’s sort of the same thing,” she added. “So it’s interesting to me that we now have this different argument, and I wonder whether Virginia could have gotten away with what they did here by just making a classification argument the way that Tennessee is in this case.”

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar agreed with the characterization made by Jackson.

“Yes, I think that’s exactly right that there is absolutely a parallel between any law that says you can’t act inconsistent with a protected characteristic,” she responded.

Audio of the comments was circulated on social media by supporters of the Tennessee ban.

Democrats have been struggling to explain their electoral losses across the board, and some have landed on the unpopular issue of transgender child surgeries as part of their problem. Others have scolded Democrats on the issue and demanded that the party plow full steam ahead into more extreme transgender policies, despite polling showing most Americans oppose those policies.

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