Last week, the Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to trans youth, their families and the communities that support them. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Skrmetti v. U.S. that SB1— Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors —does not illegally discriminate against individuals on the basis of sex or transgender status. This allows Tennessee, and any other states that may choose to follow its discriminatory lead, to ban medically-necessary health care for minors.

As one of the Tennessee parents challenging this ban put it, “the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday will make it even harder for our daughter to get lifesaving health care. It will harm the lawsuit’s unnamed families and those that come after us, with younger kids just starting to understand and express themselves.”

This is a blow for trans youth who simply want to grow up healthy, supported, and seen. It is not, however, where the legal battle ends. Importantly, the Supreme Court limited its ruling to just Tennessee’s law. It did not decide on the broader questions about the legality of discrimination against transgender people in other areas.

Below, the American Civil Liberties Union breaks down what the court’s ruling means for trans youth across the nation, how we can all fight back, and how we can best support ourselves and our communities in this moment.

The Supreme Court’s ruling does not impact youth in states that have not passed gender-affirming care bans. For young people in Tennessee and Kentucky, however, this ruling means that access to medical care that has been deemed essential by every major medical organization will be denied. In states like Indiana, Alabama, and Florida, where courts have upheld similar bans, this ruling may embolden lawmakers and courts to let those bans stay in place.

No. This case was specifically about minors in two states – Kentucky and Tennessee.

The ruling didn’t address an equally powerful claim raised in Skrmetti and other cases: that these bans violate the rights of parents to direct their children’s medical care. In this case parents, who are legal adults, can challenge whether denying their minor child health care is a violation of their rights. That fight continues in lower courts, including a major case in Arkansas where four transgender youth and their families are challenging a similar ban.

Though the Supreme Court did not provide federal-level security for trans individuals to seek care, at the state-level, bans can still be challenged under state constitutions and laws, which in some cases offer stronger protections than federal law.

This work is already happening in states like Montana, where state courts have blocked gender-affirming care bans under state law, and medical care is still accessible. Kansas and Ohio are also challenging bans on gender-affirming care in their court systems.

No. U.S. v. Skrmetti does not resolve challenges to anti-trans executive orders from the Trump administration. This case was about medical care for transgender minors in two states—it does not speak to broader attacks on transgender rights.

The ACLU, our nationwide affiliate network, and other LGBTQ rights organizations are challenging many of Trump’s attacks on transgender people’s rights and health care, including his orders restricting our ability to update passports and his order attempting to coerce doctors to drop their transgender patients.

Transgender youth deserve to be safe, loved, and respected—everywhere. You can help by taking action:

• Connect with your state ACLU affiliate, PFLAG, or local LGBTQ organizations.
• Support the Trans Youth Emergency Project, a nationwide effort by the Campaign for Southern Equality helping families access the care their children need.
• Contact your members of Congress and demand they stand with transgender people and families—rejecting laws that let politicians dictate our personal health care decisions.

Every action, every voice, every ally matters. The fight for trans lives isn’t over—and it needs you.

This week at the ACLU of Maine: Reflections on the Fourth of July and what we can learn from Frederick Douglass, SCOTUS agrees to hear two ACLU cases, an upcoming webinar on the biggest Supreme Court decisions of 2025, and more.

On July 4, Remember America’s Promise of Liberty and Justice for All

On Thursday, the Bangor Daily News published a column penned by our executive director, Molly Curren Rowles. Molly reflects on Independence Day on the heels of a radical Supreme Court term, and how the words of Frederick Douglass can help us through this time. 

In the face of unimaginable cruelty, political infeasibility, and popular scorn, Douglass proclaimed the power of the American vision and promise of fundamental human rights for all: “The Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny… The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.”

More than ever in our lifetimes, Molly says, we need to know and understand these foundational principles. Incredibly and against all odds, they still chart a course forward toward freedom, equality, and self-determination.

READ THE FULL PIECE HERE

 

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Two Major ACLU Trans Rights Cases

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two ACLU-led challenges to state laws banning transgender students from playing sports:

 

• Little v. Hecox, a challenge brought by one transgender and one cisgender student against Idaho’s ban and invasive sex-testing requirement.
• West Virginia v. B.P.J., a case brought by a teenage girl banned from running track because she’s transgender.

Nothing about the legal rights of trans youth in Maine has changed. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in these cases in the fall and will likely issue a ruling in 2026. Maine state law still protects trans students. In fact, Maine lawmakers just rejected all eight anti-trans bills introduced this legislative session.

Our state’s protections for transgender students remain strong, and our values remain clear: Everyone should be able to live as their authentic self, free from government interference.

RSVP: Supreme Court Debrief with ACLU of Maine

Join us Monday, July 8, at 6 p.m., for an online webinar breaking down this year’s most consequential Supreme Court decisions and what they mean for Maine and our country. 

 

ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan and Chief Counsel Zach Heiden will walk through key rulings on free speech, gender-affirming care, voting rights, and more. We hope to see you there! 

Learn more about the event and register here

A growing number of organizations are ceding their decision-making authority to artificial intelligence, or AI, systems. From who gets a job, to who gets a grant, to who gets investigated by child welfare agencies, to who receives social services, and who is paroled, companies and governmental entities are relegating decision making that often requires human oversight and context to a machine or algorithm. This movement to use AI to eliminate human oversight demonstrates the life-altering implications that must be addressed in AI systems.

If AI’s purpose is to provide opportunity and create efficiencies, how much thought and care is given to the communities most adversely impacted by this technology? Whose lives may be upended by its use or misuse? Given the widespread fixation on purported opportunities and the claimed promise of automation that AI can offer, it can be challenging to stay clear eyed on the impacts of this emerging technology.

Responsible AI design, deployment and adoption is critical now more than ever, not only to ensure inclusion of the voices of communities often left behind during the design of these technologies, but to also ensure that anytime an AI system is deployed the deployment considerations incorporate ongoing monitoring to evaluate whether the AI solution continues to be the best tool or approach to the problem.

This month, at the ACLU’s first Civil Rights in the Digital Age (CRiDA) AI Summit, we’re convening civil society, nonprofit, academia, and industry leaders to carefully consider how to center civil rights and liberties in our digital age, especially in the design, deployment, and evaluation of AI systems.

AI is often marketed as more objective and less discriminatory than the status quo. However, we've consistently seen how AI systems used in areas like hiring, policing, and social services risk exacerbating or amplifying discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and other protected characteristics. For years, the ACLU has called on political leaders to take concrete steps to bring civil rights and equity to the forefront of AI policymaking. We’ve fought in courts and in communities to address AI’s systemic harms and, within our organization, we work to meet the same standards.

We understand that AI can be an asset to organizations' work if implemented thoughtfully and responsibly. For example, if designed and governed carefully with appropriate guardrails, AI systems could be used to support critical accessibility technologies, like screen readers or voice assistants. But the same AI systems can also have the opposite impact—harming rather than helping marginalized communities—when they are not designed and deployed carefully.

One of the ways we ensure meaningful adoption of AI technologies in our work is that we take an approach grounded in carefully selecting the right tool (AI or not) for the job at hand. More haphazard approaches, such as indiscriminately applying the latest generative AI model for a given task, risks leveraging techniques and approaches that are not appropriate, and that can lead to serious harms, including those related to privacy, security, fairness, and more. We think it is critical to balance the benefits AI systems may provide against possible risks, and we know that when it comes to AI adoption, moving carefully and intentionally is often much more fruitful than moving fast and breaking things.

At the ACLU we have developed a risk-based approach that guides how we continuously evaluate and adopt AI tools in our work. We also evaluate AI systems we are considering procuring our privacy, security, fairness, and transparency values and closely follow emerging research on the impacts of AI systems, especially generative AI systems.

While we live in a digital age the Founding Fathers couldn’t have possibly imagined, we must ensure AI aligns with the core liberties and protections the Constitution provides.

As part of this journey, we are also staging the ACLU’s first-ever Civil Rights in the Digital Age (CRiDA) AI Summit on July 10 in New York City. CRiDA will educate the public on how a century-old civil rights organization is using a two-pronged values-based social contract on its journey to AI adoption. One is built on trust between ACLU’s tech and program teams to adopt AI responsibly. The other is built on trust with the public—showing how our technical, legal, and policy expertise helps ensure AI protects rights and serves justice for all.

If you are interested in watching some of the CRiDA panels, please click here.