Response to SCOTUS ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 18, 2025
Contact: Casey Clowes, casey@progressarizona.org
PHOENIX, AZ – In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, Alex Alvarez, Executive Director of Progress Arizona released the following statement:
The Roberts Court has shown it is not an impartial legal body, but a political weapon of the right.
Arizonans will not stand for this. The Supreme Court is supposed to act as a check — not as an enabler of government overreach and discrimination. We will not lay down while the MAGA Justices continue to empower Trump and his allies to take away Americans’ fundamental freedoms and pave the way for a billionaire-led, extremist takeover of our government.
None of us want politicians or politically-captured judges making our medical choices. Families and doctors deserve trust, respect, and privacy as they make medical decisions, free from political interference.
We as Arizonans all want what’s best for our children, and families with transgender youth are no different. The parent plaintiffs who brought this case spent years considering how to best support their children only to have the government of Tennessee take away the health care that they, their children, and their doctors believed was essential to living healthy, dignified lives. These bans on health care are cruel, dangerous, and unjust. They jeopardize people’s well-being, tear at the fabric of our communities, and rob families of the ability to decide what’s best for themselves.
This is a devastating moment for transgender youth, their parents, and their doctors across the country. Tennessee’s ban on essential medical care will continue to wreak havoc on families just trying to care for their kids. Denying this care leads directly to worse health outcomes, emotionally and physically, for transgender youth.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion, the Supreme Court has ”retreat[ed] from meaningful judicial review when it matters most” and “abandons transgender children and their families to political whims,” opening the floodgates for politicians trying to ban transgender health care, abortion, and more. The right-wing assault on our freedom doesn’t end here. The right to birth control, the right to marriage, even the privacy of our own bedrooms is under threat by the same political extremists targeting transgender people’s safety and dignity.
As Justice Sotomayor wrote:
“The Court… does irrevocable damage to the Equal Protection Clause and invites legislatures to engage in discrimination by hiding blatant sex classifications in plain sight. It also authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them.”
But here’s what they can’t take away: our resolve. No matter what the Court or these politicians say, transgender youth and their families are not alone. Arizonans will keep fighting to ensure that every person, including transgender people, has the freedom to live authentically, receive the care they need, and shape their own future.
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