In a significant setback for the transgender community, a federal judge in the Southern District of Mississippi struck down a rule created during the Biden administration that would have banned healthcare discrimination based on gender identity.
The rule, which had not yet taken effect, was created by the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2024 in order to broaden Title IX protections in the Affordable Care Act and focused on expanding prohibitions based on sex, in particular discrimination based on “sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
The rule would have been applied to any organization or health insurer that received federal funds or did business under the Affordable Care Act and was challenged by a coalition of 15 attorneys general from Republican-led states.
This ruling is the latest volley in a policy back-and-forth that began when the rule was initiated under the Obama administration in 2016, then reversed by President Trump during his first term, then revived by President Biden.
In his ruling Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who was appointed by President George W Bush, wrote the following: “In the opinion of the Court, Congress only contemplated biological sex when it enacted Title IX in 1972. Therefore, the Court finds that HHS exceeded its authority by implementing regulations redefining sex discrimination and prohibiting gender identity discrimination.”
In addition, the ruling states: “A statute cannot be divorced from the circumstances existing at the time it was passed.”
In a response statement, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appeared to cheer the decision.
“Our Fifteen-State coalition worked together to protect the right of health care providers across America to make decisions based on evidence, reason, and conscience. This decision restores not just common sense but also constitutional limits on federal overreach, and I am proud of the team of excellent attorneys who fought this through to the finish,”
Considering that President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services is the defendant in this case, the ruling is unlikely to be appealed.
Originally the Republican plaintiffs also challenged the section of the rule that prevented discrimination based on sexual orientation, as well. For reasons currently unknown, no support for that aspect of the challenge was presented, and it was not considered.
In a footnote in Judge Guirola’s opinion, he states, “In their Complaint, Plaintiffs also challenged HHS’s decision to include ‘sexual orientation’ in its sex-discrimination definition. Since they did not present an argument supporting this claim in their summary judgment submissions, the claim is deemed abandoned.”