The Supreme Court has upheld Tennessee’s ban on transgender surgeries for minors in a 6–3 ruling, asserting that such decisions are best left to individual states.

Chief Justice John Roberts, along with five conservative justices, authored the majority opinion, concluding that Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. The three liberal justices dissented.

“This case involves complex scientific and policy debates regarding the safety, effectiveness, and appropriateness of medical treatments in this evolving field,” Roberts noted in the majority opinion.

“Our only role is to determine whether the law violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” he added. “Since it does not, the decision regarding its policy implementation is left to elected representatives and the democratic process.”