The Biden administration and some parents of the children who wish to continue their gender transition are making a bold claim: that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states of Tennessee and Kentucky from regulating medical practice—on children—in an area of uncertain science. 

With the Supreme Court’s annual term reaching an end, and so many decisions coming out in these final two weeks of June, the court is also leaving us with a cliff-hanger for next year. In one of its final orders before beginning its summer recess, the court agreed to hear the case of United States v. Skrmetti next fall, setting up a showdown over a state’s right to regulate transgender medical interventions for children.

The Biden administration and some parents of the children who wish to continue their gender transition are making a bold claim: that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states of Tennessee and Kentucky from regulating medical practice—on children—in an area of uncertain science. That is an uphill claim on any of the three points.

First, states have long regulated medical practice. All doctors in the United States must hold a license from a state medical board in order to practice medicine, and they can lose that license for unprofessional or unethical conduct.

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