Arkansas was the first state in the US to pass a bill limiting the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other aspects of gender affirming care to minors. But the bill which was passed in 2021 was put on hold to await the outcome of a legal challenge. Today the judge who put that bill on hold ruled against it.

A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions.

U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18…

Republican lawmakers in Arkansas enacted the ban in 2021, overriding a veto by former GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson, who left office in January, said the law went too far by cutting off treatments for children currently receiving such care.

The judge’s ruling only impacts the state of Arkansas but his decision is likely to be viewed as a model for challenging similar laws in other states.

The case had been closely watched as an important test of whether bans on transition care for minors, which have since been enacted by more than a dozen states, could withstand legal challenges being brought by activists and civil liberties groups.

In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.

“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,” Judge Moody wrote.

The AP published a story last month on some of the other trans-related bills that have been passed in more than a dozen states.

At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and several other states are considering bills to restrict or ban care. Proposed bans are also pending before the governors of Texas, Nebraska and Missouri.

Oklahoma on Thursday agreed to not enforce its ban while opponents of the law seek a preliminary injunction against it in federal court.

In addition to those 17 states, Nebraska and Missouri are also on the verge of passing similar laws. You can assume that all of those laws will be challenged in the coming months with the help of the ACLU, as was the case in the Arkansas challenge. It’s possible that not all of those cases will go before an Obama-appointed judge. We’ll have to wait and see but if there are different rulings in different places those rulings could get appealed to the Supreme Court.

One of four plaintiffs in the Arkansas case was Dylan Brandt. Last year 60 Minutes did a segment on him in August of 2021.