In December 2024 C.E., Chase Strangio stepped up to the lectern of the U.S. Supreme Court and made history — the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the nation’s highest court. The case, United States v. Skrmetti, asked the justices to weigh in on whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors violates the U.S. Constitution. The outcome could shape trans rights law across the country for years.
At a glance
- Chase Strangio Supreme Court: Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, became the first openly trans attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court when he presented oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti on December 4, 2024 C.E.
- Gender-affirming care ban: The case challenges a Tennessee law that bars healthcare providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors, with three families and a physician as plaintiffs.
- ACLU representation: The Biden administration shared its allotted argument time with the private plaintiffs, backed by the ACLU, marking an unusual and significant alignment between federal and civil society legal teams.
Who is Chase Strangio?
Strangio graduated from Grinnell College and Northeastern University School of Law. He joined the ACLU as a staff attorney in 2013 C.E., after working as an Equal Justice Works fellow and serving as director of Prisoner Justice Initiatives at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, where he represented incarcerated transgender and gender non-conforming people.
He also co-founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund, which provides direct bail and bond assistance to LGBTQ+ immigrants — work that connects his courtroom advocacy to on-the-ground community support.
His record in high-stakes litigation is long. He worked on Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to all 50 U.S. states. He was part of the team behind Bostock v. Clayton County, which extended federal workplace protections to LGBTQ+ employees. He challenged North Carolina’s H.B. 2 and the trans military ban under the Trump administration. And he won Brandt v. Rutledge, defeating an earlier ban on trans healthcare for youth in Arkansas.
By the time Skrmetti reached the Supreme Court, Strangio had argued the core issues in the case before federal appeals courts four times — more than any other attorney in the country.
What the case is actually about
Tennessee’s law bars doctors from providing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to transgender minors, even with parental consent and medical guidance. The plaintiffs — three families with transgender children and a physician — argue the law deprives them of essential medical care and harms them under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Biden administration joined the case on appeal and framed the stakes plainly in its filing: the Court’s ruling “will determine whether the plaintiff adolescents have access to essential medical care in Tennessee and whether the plaintiff parents face the choice of relocating to a different State or forgoing essential medical care for their children.”
Major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, support access to gender-affirming care for minors. The Endocrine Society has similarly stated that evidence supports the use of hormone therapy under appropriate medical supervision. Still, the legal landscape remains contested, and similar bans exist in more than 20 U.S. states.
Why the milestone matters beyond the case
Representation in the legal system carries weight beyond symbolism. Who stands before a court shapes what arguments get made, how they are framed, and which lives feel visible in the process. For trans communities who have long been the subject of legal disputes rather than participants in them, Strangio’s presence at the Supreme Court lectern is a meaningful shift.
Cecillia Wang, ACLU legal director, put it directly: “Chase Strangio is our nation’s leading legal expert on the rights of transgender people, bar none. He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion.”
James Esseks, Strangio’s co-director at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, added: “There is no attorney in the country better suited for this landmark moment in LGBTQ history than Chase Strangio.”
The Supreme Court’s docket page for the case confirms oral arguments were scheduled for December 4, 2024 C.E. A decision is expected by the end of the Court’s term in mid-2025 C.E.
A clear milestone, with an uncertain outcome
History being made in a courtroom does not guarantee a favorable ruling. The current Supreme Court’s composition leans conservative, and the outcome of Skrmetti remains deeply uncertain. Whatever the Court decides, the case will set a legal precedent affecting transgender youth and their families across the country — in some states, in profound and immediate ways.
That uncertainty is real. But so is this: a transgender man walked into the most powerful court in the United States, prepared more thoroughly than anyone else in the country, and argued for the rights of trans children and their families. That happened. It cannot be unmade.
Read more
For more on this story, see: LGBTQ Nation
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