Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, speaks at a rally protesting Gov. Greg Abbott’s anti-trans directive to DFPS. (Erich Schlegel/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign)
Texas’ Third Circuit Court of Appeals has once again dismissed an appeal by Attorney General Ken Paxton, leaving in place a state-wide injunction halting investigations into families and medical professionals providing gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children.
In a ruling issued Monday, March 21, the appellate court wrote, “Having reviewed the record, we conclude that reinstating the temporary injunction is necessary to maintain the status quo and preserve the rights of all parties.” The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the family of a trans teen against Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services after Abbott ordered DFPS to begin investigations based on Paxton’s non-binding opinion claiming that gender-affirming health care for trans children is child abuse.
Travis County District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum initially issued a temporary restraining order halting the investigation into the plaintiff family. A week later the judge expanded that TRO to apply to such families state-wide. In expanding the order, she ruled that there was a “substantial likelihood” that the plaintiffs will succeed in their lawsuit be cause Abbott’s directive to DFPS to investigate such families, and to “mandatory reporters” to report instances in which trans children are receiving gender-affirming care, is “beyond the scope of his authority and unconstitutional.”
Paxton had appealed both injunctions to the Third Circuit appellate court, which dismissed his appeal both times.
Read the appeals court’s ruling here.
— Tammye Nash
