This Law Could Run for President. It’s That Bad.

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In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the transgender rights case making its way to the Supreme Court. Plus, we’re reclaiming locker room talk.

Grateful for you all,

The Meteor Team

WHAT’S GOING ON

A high-stakes SCOTUS case: ACLU attorney Chase Strangio will make history this week as the first openly transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court. The case at hand? United States v. Skrmetti, which will broach the question of whether or not Tennessee’s anti-trans law is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Let’s put that in plain speak for my non-Suits watchers out there.

Tennessee SB1 prohibits any medical personnel in the state from providing care that enables “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.” Translation: It bans any and all gender-affirming care specifically for transgender minors. It does not however stop, say, a cis-gendered teenage girl from receiving estrogen for any reason because, that form of gender-affirming care is not “inconsistent” with the patient’s sex assigned at birth.

This bill is so loudly and staunchly anti-trans, it could run for president and probably win.

Lawyers representing Tennessee are citing the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which eliminated the right to legal abortion, as grounds for upholding SB1, saying that it is not discriminatory but merely “an even-handed regulation of medical procedure.” The use of Dobbs as precedent is part of what makes bringing this case to a wildly conservative court such a gamble: The way they rationalize it, Dobbs didn’t discriminate based on sex; it merely regulated how abortions can be administered in this country. 🙄

The ACLU’s argument, on the other hand, is more attuned to the reality of what these laws are trying to achieve: the eradication of transgender people. “Laws like Tennessee’s are not benign regulations of medical care,” Strangio said in a statement. “They are discriminatory efforts to exclude transgender people from the protections of the Constitution.” Or, as Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, put it: “There is no ‘transgender’ exception to the U.S. Constitution.”

There’s a lot riding on whether the justices agree. If SB1 is allowed to stand uncontested, the decision would embolden more states to pass more anti-trans legislation. (Twenty-six have banned gender-affirming care already.) If, on the other hand, SCOTUS rules favorably, the outcome could grind anti-trans legislation to a halt nationwide, and establish important limits on how state law can dictate an individual’s health care.

There are, of course, many hitches in this giddyup, the largest one being the “U.S.” in “U.S. vs. Skrmetti.” Right now the Biden administration is the “U.S.”—Biden’s DOJ brought the lawsuit along with three trans minors and their families. But when he leaves office in January, the Trump administration might switch to supporting Tennessee. Should that happen, experts say there is a possibility that SCOTUS could request a new hearing to decide whether it should accept the ACLU’s petition at all.

Regardless, Strangio and the ACLU are focused on the real people at the heart of the suit. “This is Tennessee displacing the loving, reasoned, painstaking decisions of parents who are trying to do right by their children,” Strangio explained to Dahlia Lithwick on the Amicus podcast. “Children who were in anguish, and are now doing better, because of the health care Tennessee now bans.”

AND:

• Life is short and Trump’s list of awful cabinet nominees is long, but if you haven’t seen the latest report in the New Yorker on Pete Hegseth, we promise it’s worth your time. TL;DR, Hegseth was fired from working at two different veterans’ groups because of “serious accusations of impropriety,” allegations of sexual misconduct against his staffers that went unaddressed, financial mismanagement, and—my (Shannon’s) personal favorite—chanting “Kill all Muslims” repeatedly. This overgrown drunken fratboy is being considered for Secretary of Defense and I cannot help but wonder: when he has the power to kill all the Muslims he wants, will that include my daughter or just me? Or will American Muslims be spared and left to deal merely with unchecked harassment and sexual misconduct? Asking for three million friends.

• Yesterday, the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) met to finalize a Global Plastics Treaty that would have curbed plastic production around the world. Alas, the group could not reach a consensus on which measures to take or how to enforce them. Plastics and fossil fuel production waste are two of the biggest planet killers we face, and microplastics have become so pervasive they’ve been found in air and human breast milk. The air! If the nations of the world are too concerned about oil profits to worry about the air—which is borderless—is all hope lost? No, of course not. But the clock is ticking!

PROTESTORS OUTSIDE OF THE INC-5 CONFERENCE IN BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA. (VIA UNEP)

• Stacia Alexander needed a hysterectomy to treat persistent fibroids. She knew it was the best course of action. But what she didn’t know was the difference between “partial or full” hysterectomies. When the time came to make the choice, Alexander chose the latter, and doctors removed her healthy ovaries. This led to early menopause symptoms like anxiety, weight gain, and “murderous” hot flashes—problems that could have been avoided if she’d kept her ovaries. In a sweeping story for the New York Times, Alexander shares her experience, which mirrors thousands of women who are being kept in the dark about what is or isn’t being taken out of their bodies.

• Belgium has become the first country to grant sex workers formal employment contracts and workplace benefits, including sick pay and maternity leave. Progress? Is that you!?

LOCKER ROOM TALK 🏀 🏉 🏃‍♀️

A fun safe space for our fellow women’s sports fanatics 

• Olympic track and field champion Sifan Hassan has been named the Women’s Athlete of the Year by World Athletics. Hassan, an Ethiopian refugee who represented the Netherlands this summer, memorably wore a hijab to accept her Olympic gold medal in Paris, where the headcovering is banned.

• UConn star and likely first-round draft pick Paige “Buckets” Bueckers is now the first ever NIL athlete to have her own player-edition Nike sneaker. Just a reminder for anyone reading this who happens to be married to me: I am a size eight.

• Bronze-medal rugby player Ilona Maher has announced her next move after coming in second on Dancing with the Stars. She’s UK-bound and will be joining the Bristol Bears for the remainder of the Premiership Women’s Rugby season. We are all Bears fans now.

SCREENSHOT OF MY BESTIE VIA INSTAGRAM

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