Dear John,
You might be wondering why we are at the U. S. Supreme Court today? It’s simple. What happens today at the Supreme Court could hurt Texas kids for many years to come. President Biden, in his last days in office, is using the Department of Justice to sue another state (Tennessee) to stop their law that protects kids. I like to say often – we have a comprehensive approach to advocacy, so as a licensed attorney for over 20 years, I am in Washington, D.C. today to make sure that Texas laws are not impacted by this case. I’ll be involved in many media interviews and live updates on social media; and I’ll be making a special presentation to our friends at The Heritage Foundation during lunch today on this issue. Please pray for our effort and please CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TODAY!!
Here’s more detail: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments for an appeal in U.S. v. Skrmetti, of the Tennessee statute enacted to protect children from life-altering surgical and chemical attempted sex-change methods pushed by radical LGBT groups nationwide. As you may know, we worked hard with many other leaders to pass a law like this in Texas last year, and our courts protected this law. But if the Supreme Court doesn’t get it right, and if people are persuaded by the liberal media, kids could get hurt and be injured forever, or worse, they could die. We also know that President Trump could request that the Department of Justice drop this case when he takes office in January.
Texas Values joined 10 state policy councils from other states in submitting a legal amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of the challenged law. See the brief here.
In 2023, the State of Texas passed a similar law protecting children from harmful gender attempted sex-change procedures, similar to the Tennessee law. Texas Values was the leading organization in Texas supporting the passage of Senate Bill 14. Matt Rice, former law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and current Solicitor General for the State of Tennessee will be presenting arguments before the court to uphold Tennessee's statute protecting children.
A nurse from Houston, Texas, Vanessa Sivadge, blew the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital in 2023 after discovering alleged Medicaid fraud being committed by hospital officials relating to child gender modification services performed at the hospital. Then the Biden Administration's FBI Agents showed up at her home to intimidate her. Earlier this year, Vanessa was fired from her nursing position at Texas Children's Hospital because of her whistleblower actions and for telling the truth. Because Vanessa was suddenly left without a job (unjustly) and because she expressed an interest in working with us, we made her part of our “team,” and Vanessa is currently working as a contributor for Texas Values in a variety of roles. She will be available for interviews remotely today on December 4th, and she will be at our Christmas dinner event in The Woodlands this Sunday with Save Women’s Sports leader, Riley Gaines.
