A federal appeals court cleared the way for Florida to enforce a ban on transgender treatments and surgeries for those under the age of 18, reversing a lower court’s ruling.
The law prohibiting minors from getting transgender procedures, such as double mastectomies or the use of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, was passed in May 2023, but a federal district court struck down the law in June, ruling it unconstitutional. On Monday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued a stay of the ruling pending an appeal in a 2–1 decision.
The majority ruling from the appellate court found that “the defendants have made a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits” and said that the “district court likely misapplied intermediate scrutiny to the provisions and rules.”
“Florida ‘will suffer irreparable harm from its inability to enforce the will of its legis …