Federal court to reexamine prior ruling against Arkansas’s SAFE Act prohibiting treatments for transgender children

Little Rock, Arkansas – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a petition for an en banc review of a previous court ruling that prevented the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act (SAFE) Act from being enforced, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted his request.

In Arkansas, the SAFE Act forbids physicians from performing transgender procedures on children, including hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgery.

It is reported that Arkansas is the first state to try to pass a law like this.

A three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s decision in August 2022, temporarily prohibiting the state from implementing the 2021 statute.

U.S. District Judge Jay Moody declared that the Arkansas statute was unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against it in June 2023.

In a historic decision recognizing the importance of the defense of the SAFE Act, the Eighth Circuit has granted an initial en banc review. I am very pleased with today’s order as it allows my office to continue fighting to protect our state’s children from dangerous medical experimentation,” Griffin said in a press release.

Two other federal courts of appeal have already allowed similar laws protecting children from experimental gender-transition procedures in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama to go into effect. I thank Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni, Deputy Solicitor General Dylan Jacobs, and their team for the great work to secure this order for initial en banc review,” Griffin said.