A federal appeals court on Friday sided with Tennessee, finding that its law saying transgender-indentifying individuals cannot change their sex on their birth certificates does not run afoul of the Constitution.
In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Tennessee statute saying that birth certificates need to line up with sex does not violate the 14th Amendment. The state was sued by four men who identify as women who wanted to change the sex on their Tennessee birth certificates to female.
“But absent an existing fundamental right, the Constitution does not require the States to embrace the plaintiffs’ view of what information a birth certificate must record,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton. “That’s why Tennessee’s choice to record sex — not gender identity — does not withhold a constitutionally prescribed benefit. Its amendment policy treats both sexes equally, and as elaborated below there is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex.”
Sutton wrote that the law does not amount to unequal protection under the law “even under the most soaring generality of those terms.”
“No person, male or female, may amend a birth certificate simply because it conflicts with their gender identity,” he wrote. “Tennessee does not guarantee anyone a birth certificate matching gender identity, only a certificate that accurately records a historical fact: the sex of each newborn.”
Sutton added that it would be undemocratic for the court to weigh in and strike down Tennessee law since the Constitution didn’t require them to make a ruling.
“Any other approach would short-circuit the healthy, if sometimes difficult, legislative debates over these policies, debates that offer as much possibility for alteration as for continuity,” he said. “Why build a consensus among the competing constituencies if the Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted by life-tenured judges, waits in the offing to provide total victory?”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Helene White claimed that the Tennessee law was discriminatory.
“Forcing a transgender individual to use a birth certificate indicating sex assigned at birth causes others to question whether the individual is indeed the person stated on the birth certificate,” she wrote. “This inconsistency also invites harm and discrimination.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated the decision in a statement on Friday.
“Whether someone can change the sex on their birth certificate is a matter for each state to decide,” he said. “While other states have taken different approaches, for decades Tennessee has consistently recognized that a birth certificate records a biological fact of a child being male or female and has never addressed gender identity.”
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A federal appeals court on Friday sided with Tennessee, finding that its law saying transgender-indentifying individuals cannot change their sex on their birth certificates does not run afoul of the Constitution.
In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Tennessee statute saying that birth certificates need to line up with sex does not violate the 14th Amendment. The state was sued by four men who identify as women who wanted to change the sex on their Tennessee birth certificates to female.
“But absent an existing fundamental right, the Constitution does not require the States to embrace the plaintiffs’ view of what information a birth certificate must record,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton. “That’s why Tennessee’s choice to record sex — not gender identity — does not withhold a constitutionally prescribed benefit. Its amendment policy treats both sexes equally, and as elaborated below there is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex.”
Sutton wrote that the law does not amount to unequal protection under the law “even under the most soaring generality of those terms.”
“No person, male or female, may amend a birth certificate simply because it conflicts with their gender identity,” he wrote. “Tennessee does not guarantee anyone a birth certificate matching gender identity, only a certificate that accurately records a historical fact: the sex of each newborn.”
Sutton added that it would be undemocratic for the court to weigh in and strike down Tennessee law since the Constitution didn’t require them to make a ruling.
“Any other approach would short-circuit the healthy, if sometimes difficult, legislative debates over these policies, debates that offer as much possibility for alteration as for continuity,” he said. “Why build a consensus among the competing constituencies if the Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted by life-tenured judges, waits in the offing to provide total victory?”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Helene White claimed that the Tennessee law was discriminatory.
“Forcing a transgender individual to use a birth certificate indicating sex assigned at birth causes others to question whether the individual is indeed the person stated on the birth certificate,” she wrote. “This inconsistency also invites harm and discrimination.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated the decision in a statement on Friday.
“Whether someone can change the sex on their birth certificate is a matter for each state to decide,” he said. “While other states have taken different approaches, for decades Tennessee has consistently recognized that a birth certificate records a biological fact of a child being male or female and has never addressed gender identity.”
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