Staff Reports
A conservative judge in Mississippi has put a halt to the Biden administration’s attempt to push through a new rule on gender identity discrimination in healthcare. Judge Louis Guirola sided with 15 conservative states in their lawsuit against the administration, ruling that the administration had overreached its authority with the new law.
The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced the new rule in May, claiming that existing federal laws against sex discrimination in Affordable Care Act health insurance also covered transgender individuals. The rule, which was supposed to take effect imminently, received a swift blow from Judge Guirola’s ruling.
Updated: Federal judge cites SCOTUS Chevron ruling when halting HHS rule on gender identity discrimination https://t.co/hIgfcpYgTl
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) July 4, 2024
This ruling is part of a larger trend where federal judges have been pushing back against the Biden administration’s attempts to expand protections for transgender individuals. Similar rulings have been made against new rules from the Department of Education, which sought to broaden the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and pregnancy in public schools.
The Biden administration’s efforts to ensure equal access to healthcare for transgender individuals have hit a roadblock with this latest ruling. It remains to be seen how the administration will respond to this setback in its agenda to expand protections for transgender Americans.
