Politics
10 GOP Governors Tell Supreme Court That State ‘Flexibility’ To Legalize Marijuana Should Extend To Laws Restricting Transgender Care
Ten Republican governors are arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that the “flexibility” states have generally been afforded to legalize marijuana in spite of federal prohibition is an example of why they should also have the right to ban gender-affirming medical care for youth.
In an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court on Tuesday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) and nine other GOP governors made multiple mentions of state-level cannabis laws. If states have been able to set their own marijuana policies even as cannabis remains federally criminalized, that same standard should be applied to transgender healthcare laws, they said.
The brief was submitted in the case United States v. Skrmetti, which was raised by three transgender youth and their families who sued the state of Tennessee over a law banning gender-affirming care, including the prescription of treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, for transgender minors.
“On medical marijuana, the States have addressed the topic in conflicting ways,” the governors said. “Some States have legalized medical marijuana… A different group of States now allows people to possess marijuana for any reason…despite the Controlled Substances Act… Meanwhile other States continue to prohibit any use of marijuana.”
“Just as States have the flexibility to regulate on medical marijuana, vaccines, and abortion, they may choose how to approach transgender medical procedures for children,” the governors said. Cannabis, vaccines and abortion are examples of “the States’ well-established practice of legislating on contentious medical questions.”
McMaster was joined in the brief by the GOP governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.
Notably, while they’re attempting to make the case that state cannabis laws support their underlying argument about transgender care, many of the governors have strongly resisted efforts to enact legalization in their states, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R).
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in the separate case of a trucker who sued a cannabis company after he was fired over a positive THC test that he says was caused by consuming a hemp-derived CBD product. Justices during questioning zeroed in on how exactly the worker was harmed by the incident and whether his losses qualify for triple damages under federal law.
In August, justices separately heard arguments from the Justice Department in a case, United States v. Daniels, where the agency asserted that the federal government’s ban on marijuana users owning guns is supported by a recent Supreme Court decision that upheld the government’s ability to limit the Second Amendment rights of people with domestic violence restraining orders.
The case was set to be considered by the high court but was among a number of firearms-related cases remanded back to lower courts following last month’s domestic violence ruling.
Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel and Philip Steffan.
