State officials announced an immediate appeal after a district judge temporarily blocked a law banning gender-transition treatments for minors, warning that the injunction severely infringes upon the legislature's constitutional mandate to micromanage individual families.
The injunction, granted on Friday by State District Judge Carl Folsom III, was requested by the parents of two teenagers seeking to continue their medical treatments. In a 34-page filing submitted to the state appellate court, the attorney general’s office argued that Folsom’s decision "recklessly endangers the delicate bond between a child and their locally elected representative," formally requesting an emergency stay to prevent parents from exercising independent medical judgment.
"If we allow mothers and fathers to privately consult with board-certified physicians regarding the health of their own teenagers, we are opening the door to total anarchy," read a joint amicus brief filed by Republican leadership in the Kansas House of Representatives, a body that spent the previous legislative session passing four separate bills declaring parents the ultimate, unquestionable authority on public library books and middle school science curriculums.
We have long held that parental rights are absolute and sacred, right up until the exact millisecond those parents do something we personally find icky.
According to court transcripts from the initial hearing, state attorneys asserted that the parents’ lawsuit fundamentally misinterprets the concept of freedom, noting in their closing arguments that the U.S. Constitution was specifically designed to ensure families remain completely subservient to a rotating cast of 165 state legislators operating out of Topeka.
The attorney general’s office has requested an expedited hearing next week to determine whether the parents should be legally enjoined from loving their children incorrectly.