The Courts

The courts have been cranking out rulings against Trump’s attacks on trans people.

Trump rule on transgender health blocked at the 11th hour
The policy rolling back health care protections for transgender people was set to take effect Tuesday.
NBC News
By The Associated Press
August 17, 2020


WASHINGTON — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from enforcing a new regulation that would roll back health care protections for transgender people.

Finalized days after the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job, the regulation from the federal Department of Health and Human Services was to have taken effect Tuesday.

Monday’s preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn bars the administration from enforcing the regulation until the case can be heard in court and decided. Block indicated he thought the Trump administration’s so-called transgender rule is invalid in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June on a case involving similar issues in the context of job discrimination.
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“When the Supreme Court announces a major decision, it seems a sensible thing to pause and reflect on the decision’s impact,” Block wrote in his order, suggesting the agency may want to reconsider. “Since HHS has been unwilling to take that path voluntarily, the court now imposes it.”

UPI had this to say about the court’s ruling…

The new rule by the Department of Health and Human Services was set to go into effect on Tuesday and would have removed protections in the Affordable Care Act that made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex.

The ACA's anti-discrimination protection has been blocked from going into effect since 2016, and in June of 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services gave notice of its proposal to repeal those protections, raising the ire of LGBTQ activists.

So this was probably the first case to use the Supreme Court’s June ruling.

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In another case…

Trump-backed transgender athlete ban paused in Idaho
The judge said those suing Idaho over the law "are likely to succeed in establishing the Act is unconstitutional as currently written."
Politico
By Bianca Quilantan
August 17, 2020


A federal judge decided Monday to temporarily block an Idaho law that bars transgender women from participating in school sports and requires testing if an athlete’s sex is in question.

Idaho’s "Fairness in Women’s Sports Act" will now be on pause while the judge continues to decide whether the law violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, as well as the unlawful searches and seizures clause of the Fourth Amendment.

Idaho Chief Judge David C. Nye, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said those suing Idaho over the law "are likely to succeed in establishing the Act is unconstitutional as currently written." Nye also knocked the Trump administration's own position on transgender athletes, saying that an Education Department threat to schools this year is "of questionable validity."

The Idaho law is the only prohibition in the country against transgender student athletes participating in sports that match their gender identity. The Trump administration has filed a brief in the case supporting the law, which went into effect July 1.

I bet you the Trump is doing his “Unhappy Dance” over a judge who he appointed betraying him.

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Idaho is striking out over its bigoted laws that they have been passing.

Anti-transgender birth certificate law violates order, judge rules
Idaho officials’ latest attempt to ban trans people from changing their birth certificate gender violates a previous court order, a federal judge said.
NBC News
By The Associated Press
August 11, 2020


BOISE, Idaho — Idaho officials’ latest attempt to ban transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificates violates a court order issued two years ago, a federal judge said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale first ruled in 2018 that a law barring the birth certificate changes was unconstitutional, and she banned state officials from implementing it. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers passed new legislation that did largely the same thing.

That law signed by Republican Gov. Brad Little went into effect on July 1. It set strict criteria for changing gender on a birth certificate, including a requirement that a person first obtain a court order, and only allowed people to seek the court order if the sex listed on their birth certificate was mistakenly entered, entered fraudulently or under duress.

Legislators and governors are not dumb, they know that the laws are unconstitutional but they are playing to their evangelical Christian and white supremacist bases.

In her order Friday, Dale said the new procedure does the same thing as the old one by effectively preventing transgender people from changing the sex on their birth certificates.

“The plain language of the statute, as quoted, forecloses any avenue for a transgender individual to successfully challenge the sex listed on their Idaho birth certificate to reflect their gender identity,” Dale wrote.

Idaho Republican politicians reworded the first law that was struck down and now they are criticizing the “activist” judge. The Republicans knew that the law wouldn’t pass a constitutional test but they passed it anyway.