The Vulnerable Child Protection Act of Idaho is set to go into effect on Monday as a result of the court order.
(CN) On Wednesday, a federal judge in Idaho decided that the new law likely violates the U.S. Constitution and temporarily suspended the state’s decision to forbid treating transgender children for gender dysphoria.
Senior U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s 53-page order denies a motion to dismiss by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and Ada County Prosecuting Attorney Jan M. Bennetts, while also granting preliminary injunctions to two unnamed trans children and their parents.
The Vulnerable Child Protection Act, also known as House Bill 71, which was passed in early 2023 to forbid doctors from prescribing drugs or performing medical procedures to treat gender dysphoria in children under the age of 18, is the subject of the actual case. The case was filed in April of that year. On January 1, the legislation was supposed to go into effect.
Following a hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss on November 6, Winmill wrote in the order, “Time and again, these cases demonstrate that the 14th Amendment is primarily intended to protect disfavored minorities and safeguard our basic freedom from congressional overreach.”
“That was true for recently freed slaves after the Civil War. For women, people of color, interracial couples, and people seeking access to contraception in the 20th century, it was true. And it holds true for trans children and their parents in the twenty-first century,” Winmill continued.
The judge stated that striking down legislative enactments is “precisely how our constitutional republic is supposed to work,” but he also agreed with critics that doing so can be seen as “anti-democratic and counter to the will of the people.”
The Bill Clinton appointee then wrote, “Here, the defendants have established that both the public interest and the balance of equities favor a preliminary injunction, as both aspects favor ‘preventing the violation of a party’s constitutional rights,’ since they have demonstrated that the state laws violate the Constitution.”
