CV NEWS FEED // A federal judge issued a preliminary order Tuesday temporarily stopping the enforcement of an Idaho state law that protected children from so-called “gender-affirming” drugs and surgeries.
In his order, Senior District Judge B. Lynn Winmill appealed to parental rights in his defense of subjecting children to “transgender” procedures.
“Transgender children should receive equal treatment under the law,” he wrote. “Parents should have the right to make the most fundamental decisions about how to care for their children.”
“As it turns out, case law applying the Fourteenth Amendment tracks with our intuition,” the judge continued. “Time and again, these cases illustrate that the Fourteenth Amendment’s primary role is to protect disfavored minorities and preserve our fundamental rights from legislative overreach.”
Winmill then suggested a comparison between protecting children from sexual surgeries and the institution of slavery:
That was true for newly freed slaves following the civil war. It was true in the 20th Century for women, people of color, inter-racial couples, and individuals seeking access to contraception. And it is no less true for transgender children and their parents in the 21st Century.
Republican Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador blasted the ruling.
“The federal judiciary once endorsed the eugenics movement and forced sterilization of intellectually disabled people,” he stated. “Similarly, Judge Winmill’s ruling places children at risk of irreversible harm.”
“History will not look kindly at this decision,” Labrador emphasized. He noted that his office is “taking immediate action to appeal this decision” and they “are confident that correction will come.”
“Yesterday, a federal judge preliminarily enjoined an Idaho law that protects young girls and boys from being experimentally treated with mastectomies, penectomies, puberty blockers, and other irreversible and untested treatments,” Labrador’s office wrote in a Wednesday statement:
What’s most telling is that the district court refused to follow precedent from two other circuit courts of appeals that have affirmed a State’s right to protect children from these experimental surgeries. It is hard to overstate the magnitude of the court’s error.
The Washington Times reported:
The law’s constitutionality is now pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Idaho families.
HB 71, which was signed by [Republican] Idaho Gov. Brad Little in May, was slated to take effect Jan. 1. Medical providers violating the law would face felony charges and up to 10 years in prison.
