by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout
June 20, 2025

Tennessee’s Republican leaders took a victory lap Wednesday for the U.S. Supreme Court decision backing their prohibition on gender affirming care for minors as one used it for a springboard to urge a national ban.

The court’s 6-3 ruling is not a landmark decision but says Tennessee’s law is legal in that the legislature has the authority to pass healthcare-related bills.

Describing the decision as a win for “freedom,” House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland urged Congress to adopt a national ban on puberty blockers and surgeries for transgender children, even if their parents want the treatment. Short of that, Lamberth said every state lawmaker in the country should pass laws such as Tennessee’s.

“Each state should be able to protect our children from bizarre practices that are not treatment, they’re not affirming, they’re not care,” Lamberth said.

The legislature is no stranger to getting into national debate on major issues. It passed a “trigger” bill in 2019 that led to the abolition of abortion when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years later. 

Lamberth and Sen. Bo Watson took up a similar fight this year to reverse a 1982 Supreme Court ruling requiring school districts to enroll undocumented immigrant children. That effort died at the end of the session but could re-emerge in 2026.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, the gender affirming care bill’s sponsor, said the implication of the law’s effect on states’ rights “can’t be overstated.”

Johnson also mentioned that right-wing podcast host Matt Walsh deserves credit for the law for reporting claims that Vanderbilt University Medical Center was performing gender affirming care on children. 

“These are decisions that should be made by your elected representatives,” Johnson said, not unelected federal judges.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn headlines anti-transgender rally in Nashville

In response to questions about parents who might be making a last-ditch effort to keep their children alive, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the ACLU’s own attorney told the court last December that gender affirming care doesn’t affect the suicide rate.

“I think a lot of parents have been pressured through the idea that you can either have a dead son or a live daughter, to go through with these treatments,” Skrmetti said. “The research just isn’t there.”

Skrmetti acknowledged these situations are a “heavy burden” for families but said that the overwhelming number of children who deal with what he called “gender confusion” in their youth will grow out of it, unless they take irreversible treatment.

Skrmetti further called research supporting gender affirming care “fraudulent” and described the case as one of “class warfare” between groups such as Lambda Legal and the Biden administration versus common-sense Americans. 

“When researchers actually look at the science and do clean science rather than ideologically-driven science, the evidence points toward not giving kids these treatments,” Skrmetti said.

Their stances didn’t exactly mesh with those of the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.

ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, the first transgender person to argue in front of the Supreme Court, said Wednesday the ruling is a “devastating attack” on transgender people.

“As a parent, there truly is nothing more scary than watching your child suffer and having the government come in and displace your best judgment about medical care about your child,” Strangio said.

Lambda Legal’s Karen Loewy echoed that statement, saying the court’s ruling makes it harder for young transgender people to “escape the danger and the trauma of being denied that ability to seek the healthcare that they need.”

While the court found that Tennessee’s law doesn’t discriminate against children seeking gender affirming care, it didn’t endorse all of the appeals court’s decision after it overturned the trial court’s ruling.

“It did not mandate or even green light other bans on gender affirming medical care, even for young people or other forms of discrimination,” Loewy said. “It really is about how it viewed Tennessee’s specific ban in this way.”

In light of that, look for a landmark ruling to play out elsewhere, or maybe Congress will take up this matter — as soon as it passes the president’s “big, beautiful” budget.

The honeymoon is over

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell started his administration in 2023 intending to build rapport with Tennessee Republicans on the heels of an attempted legislative takeover of Davidson County.

Less than two years later, that relationship appears to be on ice (pardon the pun).

Since federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a sweep in South Nashville and arrested nearly 200 people, things haven’t been going swimmingly between the mayor and state leaders.

The mayor was meeting monthly with Gov. Bill Lee, but he’s not having beers with legislative leaders. And it’s not clear whether he talks to Lee anymore.

O’Connell, a Democrat, updated an executive order from former Mayor David Briley requiring Metro Nashville personnel to report encounters with ICE agents within 24 hours. Metro also inadvertently posted the names of three federal agents online but took them down, leading key state lawmakers to propose a bill targeting O’Connell or other local government officials who identify ICE people, even mistakenly.

Tennessee GOP Congressman calls for investigation of Nashville mayor amid immigrant detentions

House Speaker Cameron Sexton also urged O’Connell to rescind the executive order, saying it jeopardizes the safety of agents and accusing Metro of escalating the situation by turning into “big brother.” Maybe he didn’t know the order was six years old, and maybe we need a clearer definition of “big brother.”

O’Connell has been running below the radar — mainly pushing a Davidson County property tax increase to fund a transportation plan — while giving folks only an indication how he feels, especially since these dragnets affect his constituents. 

The mayor was caught between a rock and hard place. If he’d stood with ICE, he would have lost all local backing. Just the slightest show of support for immigrants cost him any backing from Republican lawmakers.

Joining the onslaught against O’Connell are Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and a host of Republican senators co-sponsoring the bill by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin. 

McNally doesn’t believe mayors should know anything about federal law enforcement activity.

Asked whether the mayor should be notified if Metro personnel come into contact with ICE, McNally said federal agents don’t have to notify the mayor if they conduct a drug raid. 

But what if Metro personnel run into ICE? “The more people that know, the more it gets out,” McNally said.

The problem is that when federal agents start pulling people off the streets and sending them to an El Salvadoran prison — probably without due process — the word is likely to leak. 

Also complicating the matter is that some of those sent to that prison entered this country legally, according to a study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

The legislature jumped on Metro Nashville three years ago with a spate of laws designed to give the state more authority over Davidson County decisions. Those moves came in response to the Metro Nashville Council’s rejection of the Republican National Convention, which, come to think of it, is held nightly on Lower Broadway.

Some of those court cases continue.

In the most recent ruling, an appeals court found the legislature has the authority to cut Metro’s council in half, even without permission from voters or the council. A majority of Nashvillians oppose the move, though some think the council could be more efficient if it didn’t have 40 members.

But while Republican lawmakers argue the state created cities and, thus, has control over them, those were obvious political maneuvers. Such moves are becoming trendy, putting up a higher wall between Republican lawmakers and O’Connell, whose city keeps churning out billions of dollars in tax revenue that keep the state budget afloat.

“Who’s on first? No, who’s on first”

Tennessee Sen. Bill Powers took himself out of the running this week for the 7th Congressional District seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green.

That leaves only about 10 people in the hunt for the Republican primary.

On the Democratic side, potential candidates are former Nashville Mayors John Cooper and Megan Barry, state Rep. Bo Mitchell, state Rep. Vincent Dixie, state Rep. Aftyn Behn and Darden Copeland, founder of public relations firm Calvert Street Group.

Traveling abroad

Gov. Bill Lee and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter took another trip to Paris this week, not the one in West Tennessee, but the little city across the pond where they put the rulers in guillotines about 230 years ago. 

While there, during the Paris Air Show, Lee, McWhorter and Howmet Aerospace officials announced a company expansion in Morristown to create 217 jobs, in addition to 50 the company announced in 2024. Howmet employs 1,000 people at the Hamblen County plant where it builds aerospace components.

The Tennessee Lookout hasn’t been able to find out how much the governor and commissioner are spending on the trip. But it’s safe to say they aren’t having to keep the light on at Motel 8.

McWhorter and Deputy Commissioner Allen Borden spent more than $32,450 on a four-day trip to Sydney and Brisbane, flying first class and staying in five-star hotels on a recruiting trip to Australia last year. Lee and other state officials took a similar trip to France and Italy in November 2023 that cost $117,000.

The governor refused to answer directly about McWhorter’s expenses last year but said the state has recruited $35 billion worth of investments in Tennessee and created 200,000 jobs, making it a good trade-off.

So “let them eat cake,” the words that led to the decapitation of French Queen Marie Antoinette.

“You say you’ll change the constitution / Well, you know / we all want to change your head.” The Beatles – Revolution

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

The post Stockard on the Stump: Republicans declare “freedom” in gender care court ruling appeared first on tennesseelookout.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article presents a viewpoint largely aligned with conservative and Republican perspectives, especially in its detailed coverage and apparent emphasis on Tennessee GOP leaders’ support for the ban on gender-affirming care for minors and states’ rights. It highlights arguments from Republican officials and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti using language that questions the validity of gender-affirming care research and supports legislative authority over judicial intervention. While it also includes perspectives from LGBTQ advocacy groups and Democratic officials, these are framed as counterpoints, preserving a tone that is somewhat sympathetic to conservative legal and political positions. The overall framing and selection of quotes suggest a center-right leaning, reflecting mainstream conservative stances on these issues without overt editorializing or strong partisan attacks.