Acknowledging Parental Rights, Kansas Judge Blocks Ban on Gender Transition Treatments for Minors

A judge in Kansas has blocked the state’s ban on non-surgical gender-transition treatment for minors.Last year, lawmakers in Kansas overrode a veto by the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, to ban so-called gender affirming care for minors.However, on Friday, a state district court judge, Carl Folsom, temporarily blocked the ban on non-surgical gender-transition treatment for minors, but left in place a ban on surgical procedures.While the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors in last year’s United States v. Skrmetti decision, Judge Folsom — who was appointed by Ms. Kelly — found that Kansas’s ban violated the state’s constitution.“The Court concludes that Plaintiffs are likely to prevail based on the right to personal autonomy set out in Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights and a parent’s fundamental right to make medical decisions for their children,” he wrote while granting a preliminary injunction to block the law. The ACLU filed the challenge to the law on behalf of two teenage transgender individuals and their parents.In a statement, an ACLU attorney, Harper Seldin, celebrated Judge Folsom’s ruling, saying, “This is an enormous relief to our clients and families across the state of Kansas.”The Republican attorney general of Kansas, Kris Kobach, called the ruling a “stark example of judicial activism.”“The judge invented a new constitutional right out of whole cloth,” Mr. Kobach said. “Even though the Kansas Constitution says nothing about it, the judge created a new right of parents to obtain otherwise-illegal treatments for their children.”He said he plans to appeal the ruling.The block on Kansas’s law comes as conservatives have seen some setbacks in their attempts to restrict abortion or transgender procedures at the state level, even after major Supreme Court rulings such as Skrmetti or Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.In several cases, abortion bans have been blocked as courts have found that they violated state constitutions. Last month, a Wyoming judge blocked a law that banned abortions after a “detectable fetal heartbeat,” on the grounds that it likely violated the state’s constitution. That law was passed after the Wyoming Supreme Court blocked two previous 2023 laws restricting abortion on the grounds that they violated an amendment in the state’s constitution that protects an individual’s right to make decisions about her healthcare. Lawmakers in Wyoming considered attempting to pass an amendment to change the constitution after the Wyoming Supreme Court’s decision, but instead chose to pass another abortion ban.Opponents of such bans have found some success in challenging the laws using conservative arguments. In March, a county superior court judge in Indiana, Christina R. Klineman, granted a temporary injunction to block the state’s abortion ban on the grounds that it violated a law meant to bolster protections for religious freedoms.

Acknowledging Parental Rights, Kansas Judge Blocks Ban on Gender Transition Treatments for Minors

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