The Texas Supreme Court Building at 201 W. 14th Street in Austin

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday, Jan. 30), attorneys from Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, ACLU National, Transgender Law Center and the pro bono law firms of Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, LLP are set to present oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that Senate Bill 14 — passed during the 2023 Texas legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott — violates the Texas Constitution by depriving parents of their fundamental right to make medical decisions for their children, discriminating against transgender youth on the basis of sex and transgender status, and violating medical professionals’ right to practice their professions.

The lawsuit, Loe v. Texas, was filed by five families of trans youth, three medical providers  and two organizations representing hundreds of families and health professionals across the state in July, immediately after Abbott signed the bill into law. Although the trial court judge issued a temporary injunction banning enforcement of SB 14, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed directly to the Texas Supreme Court, which lifted the injunction and allowed SB 14 to go into effect on Sept. 1.

Tomorrow morning’s oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court can be live-streamed here.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Arguments in the case come just four days after the Houston Chronicle broke the news that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has requested private medical information about Texas youth who received gender-affirming health care from a Georgia-based telehealth clinic.

This is at least the second time, according to reports by the Texas Tribune, that Paxton has requested such information on Texans seeking health care outside of Texas.

QueerMed confirmed Friday morning, Jan, 26, that they had received the request from Paxton, saying the impeached and federally-indicted AG had asked for private information about Texas residents the clinic provided with telehealth care in Texas before such healthcare was outlawed by right-wing lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2023 legislative session, and about Texans who were provided such care outside of their own state after the ban took effect.

QueerMed officials told the Tribune their clinic had stopped providing telehealth services to trans youth in Texas after the state banned gender-affirming health care for trans youth. Queer Med officials said Paxton’s request to them nearly mirrors the request he sent last year to Seattle Children’s Hospital, in which he asked for the number of Texas children Seattle Children’s had treated, medications prescribed to children, the children’s diagnoses and the name of Texas laboratories where tests for youth are administered.

Seattle Children’s received the request Nov. 17 and then sued the Texas Office of the Attorney General in December.

QueerMed officials told the Tribune Paxton had sent the request to their clinic on Nov. 17, but that because of mail delays they did not receive it until Dec. 7. They said they could not comment yet on how they would respond to the request.

Lambda Legal attorney Karen Loewy told the Tribune that there is there is “zero authorization” in the law for Paxton’s requests to clinics outside of Texas.

— Tammye Nash