DOJ asks federal court to stay Alabama transgender care lawsuit

A transgender flag sits on the grass during the "Trans Youth Prom" outside of the U.S. Capitol building on May 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Monday asked an Alabama federal court judge to stay proceedings in a challenge to Alabama’s ban on medical gender-affirming care after the United States Supreme Court agreed to take up a lawsuit against a similar prohibition in Tennessee.

In the filing, the DOJ wrote that the court had earlier denied a stay and would reconsider the request if the Supreme Court took up the case.

“Now that the Supreme Court has done so, a stay is warranted,” the attorneys wrote.

A message was left with the Attorney General’s office Tuesday morning. Neither the plaintiffs in the case — transgender youth and their families — nor the state had filed any response to the stay request as of Tuesday morning.

The state has been involved in litigation over the ban since shortly after Gov. Kay Ivey signed the law in 2022.

The law makes it a felony for providers to provide hormones or puberty blockers in gender-affirming care for transgender individuals under the age of 19. A physician convicted under the law could face up to 10 years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Liles Burke blocked the enforcement of the law with a preliminary injunction in 2022 , writing that it interfered with parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children and the state failed to prove that the drugs were harmful.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that preliminary injunction last year . U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote that the plaintiffs had not proven a constitutional right to gender affirming care.

The federal attorneys wrote that the question of state bans for gender-affirming care for minors will now be decided less than a year from now. They requested a stay on district court proceedings, they wrote.

“The United States seeks a stay to avoid the prospect of re-litigation of the claims in this case in light of the Supreme Court’s decision and the resulting unnecessary expenditure of judicial resources,” they wrote.

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