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Tennessee and Kentucky can continue to ban gender-affirming care for young transgender people while legal challenges against those state laws proceed, federal appeals judges ruled. In a 2-1 decision by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel late Thursday, the majority wrote that elected lawmakers made “precise cost-benefit decisions” in instituting the bans and “did not trigger any reason for judges to second-guess them.” The laws were passed by Republican majorities in both states. “Prohibiting citizens and legislatures from offering their perspectives on high-stakes medical policies, in which compassion for the child points in both directions, is not something...

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh dove into the “huge” ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld Tennesee’s and Kentucky’s bans on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries on gender-confused children. In its 2-1 ruling rejecting a challenge to the laws from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and families of trans-identifying children, the federal court “thoroughly dismantled, point-by-point, every disingenuous argument from trans activists,” Walsh said in a thread posted to X. “The case arose because of laws in TN and KY banning the use of puberty blockers and sterilizing cross-sex hormones on children. The laws...

Judge Amul Thapar said the Supreme Court should reverse the 1973 Supreme Court decision that said abortion is a constitutional right.(LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge reluctantly voted to block several pro-life laws, but urged the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade that imposed abortion on all 50 states. Judge Amul Thapar said in a September 10 Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that as a lower court judge he was “bound by the Supreme Court’s decisions” to strike down Tennessee’s Heartbeat Act. At the same time, he said it is time for Roe to be...

A federal appeals court ruled against Tennessee’s abortion restrictions on Friday, nine days after another pro-life “heartbeat” law went into effect in Texas. In July 2020, Tennessee enacted a law restricting abortions at several stages in pregnancy, including abortions conducted after detection of a fetal heartbeat which can occur as early as six weeks post gestation. The law also prohibited abortions conducted because of the race or sex of the baby, or because of a Down syndrome diagnosis. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit ruled against both provisions, upholding a lower court’s ruling that halted them from...

While Vitolo only addressed the race- and sex-based discrimination in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, it could prove fatal to many federal and state statutes, regulations, and practices. =========================================================================== Last week, while the press drooled over the president’s ice cream selection, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Vitolo v. Guzman declared unconstitutional the Biden administration’s race-based approach to distributing COVID-relief funds. While Vitolo only addressed the race- and sex-based reverse discrimination in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the precedent could prove fatal to many other federal and state statutes, regulations, or practices, leaving the Biden...

Yesterday evening, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted a temporary injunction barring the Small Business Administration from prioritizing applications for COVID-19 relief funding based upon the race or sex of the business owner applying for the relief. Judge Amul Thapar wrote for the court, joined by Senior Judge Alan Norris. Judge Bernice Donald dissented. Judge Thapar’s opinion in Vitolo v. Guzman begins with a simple and straightforward description of the case and holding: “This case is about whether the government can allocate limited coronavirus relief funds based on the race and sex...

The case shows the judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.On Friday, in a procedural oddity, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to hear the initial appeal in Bristol v. Slatery as a full court, rather than allowing the case to proceed as normal before a three-judge panel. The case involved abortion, and the takeaways are two-fold: The judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.To understand the significance of the Sixth...

A federal appeals court gave the state of Tennessee great news late Friday when it issued a ruling that the Volunteer State can ban abortions done specifically because a baby has Down syndrome. Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a broad pro-life law to protect unborn babies from abortions once their heartbeats are detectable. Though the legislation is described as a heartbeat bill, it includes many different measures to protect unborn babies. The law passed the state legislature in June, and pro-life lawmakers said they wrote the bill to withstand a legal challenge. The heartbeat portion of the...

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement has given President Trump the chance to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy in less than two years. The president hit a home run with Justice Neil Gorsuch, who helped deliver conservatives and libertarians their best Supreme Court term in some time. Can Trump do it again? According to recent reports, he has interviewed seven candidates. All appear to be originalists and textualists of varying shades, and each could make an excellent justice. But keep your eye on Judge Amul Thapar, President Trump’s first judicial nominee after Justice Gorsuch but someone I haven’t seen much written...

In Viuda de Mejia v. Sessions, in 2017, Thapar wrote for a 6th Circuit panel that upheld a Board of Immigration Appeals decision denying a Salvadoran woman’s asylum claim. Noting that the woman was required to establish that she was or would be persecuted for being a member of a particular social group, Thapar remarked that “[h]er proposed social groups have … expanded and contracted with each appeal as she searched for the right fit,” but that “novelty is not often rewarded on appeal.” And in United States v. Agyemano, in 2015, Thapar rejected a motion to dismiss a charge...

Amul Thapar: Trump Country's Perfect SCOTUS Choice President Trump — already a conservative hero for appointing Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court and for his swift remaking of the federal appellate courts — can again make history by choosing Judge Amul Thapar of Kentucky to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Thapar, the son of Indian immigrants who came to America legally, is the product of public schools in Toledo, Ohio. He was the first ever judge of South Asian descent appointed to the federal bench and would be the first person of any Asian heritage appointed to the Supreme...

An Indian-American legal luminary has been nominated by US President Donald Trump to a key judicial position on the powerful US court of appeals. Amul Thapar, 47, who in 2007 became the first South Asian Article III judge when he was appointed as a US District Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky, is the first Indian-American to be nominated by Trump for a top judicial post yesterday. If confirmed by the Senate, Thapar will be part of the powerful US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. Thapar was among the 20...