Supreme Court Won’t Immediately Grapple With Medicaid Trans Care

A federal appeals court must reconsider its holding that West Virginia’s Medicaid program can’t lawfully withhold coverage for gender-affirming surgery, the US Supreme Court said Monday.

The justices granted review and vacated the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that the exclusion violated the equal protection rights of transgender Medicaid beneficiaries.

It’s one of several cases arguing that state laws or policies violate the rights of transgender Americans under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The top court recently rejected that argument in a decision upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for minors that may impact this ...