Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed a 22-state amicus brief supporting Florida's request to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The request seeks to enforce Florida’s law regulating sex-modification procedures while an appeal against a district court’s order enjoining the law is pending. The case in question is Doe v. Surgeon General, State of Florida.
Florida, similar to many states and European nations, imposes age restrictions on sex-change procedures. These restrictions prohibit administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to minors for gender transition purposes. In June, a federal district court permanently enjoined the enforcement of this law, asserting that Florida's legislature acted with animus against transgender individuals.
“Until a few years ago, the notion of providing sex-change treatments to children was practically unthinkable,” stated Attorney General Marshall. “But last month, a district court credited its own view of the ‘moral universe’ over that of the people’s elected representatives, unfairly discounting as ‘animus’ legitimate concerns about providing sterilizing sex-change procedures to vulnerable youth. The Constitution plainly leaves such political judgments to the politically accountable branches of government, not federal judges.”
The state coalition argued in their brief that the Florida district court did not apply the required presumption of legislative good faith to Florida’s law. Instead, it applied this presumption in favor of organizations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which advocates for providing minors identifying as transgender with hormonal and surgical interventions. The brief pointed out recently unsealed evidence in Alabama’s case revealing that WPATH’s recommendations were created in collaboration with "social justice lawyers" who advised against looking for evidence because it could reveal a lack thereof and harm their chances of "affecting policy" and "winning lawsuits."
Attorney General Marshall has been actively involved in efforts to protect children from irreversible sex change procedures. He has defended Alabama’s law and led briefs supporting other states' laws. In January, the Eleventh Circuit allowed Alabama's Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act to be enforced.
The Alabama-led brief included attorneys general from Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah and West Virginia.