The Supreme Court announced Monday it would not hear a challenge over a Catholic hospital declining to provide transgender surgery, leaving in place the lower court’s ruling in favor of the transgender man.
A transgender man, Evan Minton, sued Dignity Health after the hospital declined to perform his hysterectomy.
He received the surgery three days later at a non-religious hospital but filed a lawsuit in California claiming he was discriminated against.
The lower courts ruled in his favor and against the hospital, which asked the justices to review the case.
Specifically, Dignity Health argued that religious health care institutions should be protected by the First Amendment and not forced to perform surgeries that conflict with its ethics.
The majority of the justices declined to get involved.
Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. would have taken up the case for review.
It takes four justices to have granted the appeal.
The case was Dignity Health v. Minton.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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