US Federal judge tosses Arkansas ban on Transgender medical care

[Jimmy Higgins]

link

In his order, Moody ruled that the prohibition violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families. He said the law also violated the First Amendment rights of medical providers by prohibiting them from referring patients elsewhere.

“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Moody wrote in his ruling.

It'll almost certainly head to the Fifth Appeals Court, where it will then be sent up to SCOTUS. Politicians argued two ways, most of the doctors argued just one. The judge weighed in heavily with the doctors.

 

[Playball40]

Good

 

[ZiprHead]

In other Arkansas news...

Judge blocks Ark. law banning librarians from giving minors ‘harmful’ books

A federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a state law that would have made it a crime for librarians and booksellers to give minors materials deemed “harmful” to them — a move celebrated by free-speech advocates, who had decried the law as a violation of individual liberties.

Act 372 would have taken effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction Saturday, siding with bookstores, libraries and patrons in the state that argued in a lawsuit filed last month that parts of the law were unconstitutional.

Article 1 would have made it a criminal offense to knowingly provide a minor with any material deemed “harmful” — a term defined by state law as containing nudity or sexual content, appealing to a “prurient interest in sex,” lacking “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic or political value for minors” or deemed “inappropriate for minors” under current community standards.


Plaintiffs also challenged Article 5, which would have allowed anyone “affected by” material in a particular county or municipal library to challenge the “appropriateness” of the material.
The plaintiffs argued that the law would force librarians and booksellers to make an impossible choice: Remove books that some might deem offensive to young readers from their shelves; create secure, adult-only spaces for those books; ban minors from their facilities altogether — or expose themselves to criminal charges or fines.

Another good.