Chase Strangio will be the first openly trans lawyer to argue in front of the Supreme Court. He will make his debut with December 4 for U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case that will decide transgender rights in the country for years to come.
Strangio is the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, having played an instrumental role in guiding the organization through numerous trans-related legal battles. He was additionally part of the team that won a legal battle against a ban on trans care with the case Brandt v. Rutledge, representing four families with trans youth.
Skrmetti concerns three families of transgender youth as well as a doctor who argue that they’re victims of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. They argue that by being deprived of essential medical care and that they were harmed by the state, so – backed by the ACLU – they are suing the Tennessee attorney general to stop the law from being enforced.
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After escalating through a District Court and a Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after an appeal from the Biden Administration, who then agreed to share their time with the private plaintiffs.
“This Court’s resolution of the question presented will determine whether the plaintiff adolescents have access to essential medical care in Tennessee and whether the plaintiff parents face the choice of relocating to a different State or forgoing essential medical care for their children,” said the administration in its appeal request.
Strangio graduated from Northeastern University School of Law and Grinnell College and joined the ACLU as a staff attorney in 2013, previously working as an Equal Justice Works fellow and the director of Prisoner Justice Initiatives at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, representing incarcerated trans and gender non-conforming individuals. He co-founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund, an organization that provides direct bail and bond assistance to LGBTQ+ immigrants.
He’s worked on the landmark case that led to same-sex marriage being legalized in all 50 states, Obergefell v. Hodges. He worked on Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court case that led to protections for LGBTQ+ workers, and also worked on challenges to North Carolina’s H.B. 2 – an attack on trans rights in that state – and former President Donald Trump’s trans military ban.
He also has represented Chelsea Manning, a transgender whistleblower who revealed military documents to WikiLeaks.
Cecillia Wang, ACLU legal director, said of Strangio in a statement, “Chase Strangio is our nation’s leading legal expert on the rights of transgender people, bar none. He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion. Our clients couldn’t have a better advocate in this case.”
James Esseks, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, also said of Strangio in a statement, “There is no attorney in the country better suited for this landmark moment in LGBTQ history than Chase Strangio. He has argued the issues before the court in Skrmetti four times before federal appeals courts, more than any attorney in the country. Anyone who has worked with Chase knows the intelligence, compassion, and courage he brings to every fight for the rights and well-being of his plaintiffs. It remains one of the great honors of my career to work alongside Chase and I have no doubt the court will be likewise impressed by the depth of his knowledge, the strength of his arguments, and the power of his empathy.”
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