Top Texas Court Allows Abuse Inquiries of Parents of Transgender Children

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

HOUSTON — The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that investigations of parents with transgender children for possible child abuse could continue, after an emergency appeal by state officials including Gov. Greg Abbott. The ruling reversed an appeals court decision that had temporarily halted the inquiries statewide. But the court said that officials could not resume the investigation into the plaintiffs that had brought the lawsuit, a family and a doctor, acknowledging that the inquiry would cause “irreparable harm” and leaving in place the injunction as their case proceeds to trial.

In its 12-page opinion, the court found that the appeals court had “abused its discretion” in issuing a statewide order at this point the legal process. The investigations began in February after Mr. Abbott ordered state officials to consider certain medically accepted treatments for transgender youth to be abuse, including hormones or puberty-suppressing drugs. The ruling on Friday came in response to a legal challenge brought by the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl. The family was among the first to be investigated by the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services under Mr. Abbott’s order. Several other investigations have since come to light.

In March, a district judge, Amy Clark Meachum in Travis County, ordered all such investigations to stop, pending a trial. She found that the governor’s order had been improperly adopted and violated the State Constitution. An appeals court allowed the temporary injunction to remain in place. Mr. Abbott, along with the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, brought the case to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that the investigations, on their own, were not an “injury” and that the district court had overstepped its authority in preventing them. All nine members of the state’s highest court are Republican; five were appointed by Mr. Abbott.

The court found that Mr. Abbott and Mr. Paxton could not in fact require certain kinds of investigations by the Department of Family and Protective Services, finding that the agency had discretion over how it conducts its abuse inquiries. “Neither the Governor nor the Attorney General has statutory authority to directly control” the department’s investigatory decisions, wrote Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who was appointed by Mr. Abbott in 2018. “Just as the governor lacks authority to issue a binding ‘directive’ to DFPS, the court of appeals lacks authority to afford statewide relief to nonparties,” wrote Justice Blacklock.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/us/texas-supreme-court-abuse-transgender-children.html

[jimfields33]

1. If there is abuse, investigate. I don't care what the family dynamic is.

Abuse is a horrible thing for any child. It follows them forever.

[ashredux]

3. The problem is, Abbott is making something an "abuse" that is not such

[newdayneeded]

6. I suspect

They're coming at it in a "we think you forced your son to wear dresses" attitude.

[paleotn]

9. You do realize this isn't about "abuse".

At least not in the manner it's being batted about by the Tejas governor who's name I will not justify by using.

[Withywindle]

15. This is about giving abusive parents carte blanche to abuse their LGBTQ kids

There was a brief window in time when LGBTQ kids had a chance to talk to adults other than their homophobic parents and get some support, in red-state schools.

This is aimed at shutting even those narrow escape routes down. LGBTQ youth are at high suicide rates, and most of their abusers are their own parents. They desperately need a way to find adults who can speak to them frankly about how to get out of those abusive homes and live freely as they are.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. The issue here is that Abbott ordered state officials to consider medical treatments for transgender

kids to be abuse. It's not abuse.

[Initech]

2. This is some straight up Nazi shit.

Fuck Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton to the highest circle of hell. What pieces of absolute shit. And fuck Fox News too for bringing this on.

[area51]

13. +1 n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Staunch defenders of family using government to disrupt families

because they don't like the parenting decisions of these families

[patphil]

5. Apparently child abuse is whatever they want it to be.

Singling out parents of children who may be transgender and accusing their attempts to deal with the situation as child abuse will just drive another group of families out of Texas...which is exactly what Abbott wants.
It's like saying that homosexuals are all pedophiles, or that illegal aliens coming across the Texas/Mexico border are all drug dealers or rapists, or that anyone who aborts a fetus is a murderer.
What Abbott and Paxton are doing is all evil shit.

[ananda]

7. This is SO wrong.

i despair of this whole society.

[cab67]

8. sooner or later...

...this shit is going to hit Texas in its tax base.

I would imagine some companies that would otherwise be lured to Texas are reconsidering such a move. Why would they do that, when they'd lose a bunch of employees who don't want to relocate to Texas?

At some point, companies are going to actually leave Texas, if only to keep highly qualified workers on board. If they keep losing employees to competitors not located in a medieval shithole - which, this UT-Austin alum is sorry to say, Texas is rapidly becoming - it'll be in their best business interest to move.

[2live is 2fly]

20. I think Elon Musk is moving his car company to TX, something about

not liking Gavin Newsom, trying to save his life OR THE LIVES OF OTHER (Liberal) CALIFORNIA CITIZENS during the pandemic!

[paleotn]

10. What's it going to take for reasonable people...

to start leaving Texas in droves?

[Withywindle]

16. Why should they have to?

I'm old-school. Howard Dean FIFTY STATE STRATEGY. We do not write off any state.

We need to support people in the shittiest states who are fighting against gerrymandering, which has lead to Repugs taking over state legislatures even though they are not in the real majority, which has been going on for decades, and there is a real issue with ignoring that because it doesn't make the news.

We REALLY need to support vulnerable populations, like trans people and immigrants and anyone who could possibly get pregnant, in states where they are most in danger. With money. I don't donate to politicians anymore, I donate to organizations that help the people most in need.

We need to mobilize people on the local level for local elections.

[paleotn]

18. A noble cause....

We do need to support vulnerable populations behind the political iron curtain. But political change is dependent far more on demographics than anything Dems can do conventionally today. Dean's strategy simply won't work in the land of maga. The recalcitrant must be either diluted by transplants from blue states, immigration and / or wait for them to die off. And Abbott's draconian legislation is making that even more difficult. I place far more hope in those under 30. My own demographic is a complete write off. They're beyond hopeless.

Examples.....If it weren't for the growth and demographic change in its northern counties, VA would still be red. The Valley, the Richmond ex-burbs and rural areas are still ruby red and that isn't changing anytime soon.

Georgia moving purple was contingent on growth of Atlanta metro, period. That's where Stacy Abrams found an organizing "sweet spot". It has nothing to do with people changing their minds politically in Macon, Dalton or Columbus.

North Carolina's politics is likewise dependent on growth and demographic change in Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and the Triad.

In Texas, until the big 4 outweigh the white ex-burb and rural vote, TX will not change. White, religious, conservo-nuts will not change. They won't. In fact, they're digging in deeper and becoming far more radicalized. I wouldn't move there if my life depended on it. No more than I'd move to North Korea. By the time it shifts due to immigration, migration and population turnover, I'll be too old to move anyway. But by then, climate change, driving in part by right wing recalcitrance, will make it nearly uninhabitable.

Otherwise, you're trying to mobilize fence posts. Worse yet, evil fenceposts bent on screwing themselves by voting so far outside their own self interests it beggars belief. But mobilize all you like in MS, SC, KY, TN, OK, MO, KS, IA and on and on behind the red curtain. It will frustrate the hell out of you and no matter how much good sense you make, no matter how appealing, logical and moral your arguments, they'll still believe in their hearts that your nothing but a godless, commie

[Skittles]

22. better yet, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS

STAY AND FIGHT

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Curious

Texas high court says governor cannot order transgender child investigations

LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) - The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that neither Governor Greg Abbott nor the state's attorney general had the authority to order child abuse investigations of families that provide certain medical treatment for their transgender children.

n its ruling, the top court said the state could not investigate the family of a 16-year-old transgender child at the center of the case while the family's lawsuit was pending before lower courts.

The court did not go so far as to order a blanket ban on all such investigations, saying a decision on carrying out inquiries was up to the Department for Family and Protective Services (DFPS).

"The Governor and the Attorney General were certainly well within their rights to state their legal and policy views on this topic, but DFPS was not compelled by law to follow them," the court wrote in its ruling.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-high-court-says-governor-cannot-order-transgender-child-investigations/ar-AAXfpfx

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I think the key part is this (from your link and the OP)

“Neither the Governor nor the Attorney General has statutory authority to directly control” the department’s investigatory decisions

Meaning that the DFPS would be the sole entity permitted to make the decision to carry out this type of inquiry...or not. No other "authority" like the Governor can "order" or "compel" it or "stop" it.

They seemed to try to figure out how to do the headlines and got twisted up doing it.

[EndlessWire]

14. This is just sickening.

They don't care about kids. They care about how they appear to others who are homophobic (and I'm not saying that transgender means gay). They don't care what harm they cause to families who are caring for their child as responsible adults would do.

Isn't there some other thing they could be doing, like keeping the lights on, or something? What a waste of time. Investigating parents for alleged child abuse is reprehensible. Having that record, right or wrong, is traumatizing. Shame on them.

[Initech]

19. What's even more bizarre is not that they don't care about kids.

But that they're convinced that what they are doing is right for kids. This mindset is truly frightening and I fear for children that have to live with parents like that.

[Solly Mack]

21. The state, the state being Abbott and Paxton, as well as those who support and enable this horrific

law, are the only ones abusing anyone.

They are cruel, vile, and vicious people.

They are labeling love and support for a transgender child as abuse.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

23. I want Abbott and Paxton and Patrick investigated for abuse..

Abuse for what they are once again doing to trans kids.

Abuse for turning a blind eye, fundraising, sucking up to the NRA, and being general assholes, while children are being blown away in one of their fucking schools.

What about that, Abbutt? You claim to want to protect kids? Like hell you do. Like you did in making it easier for a mass slaughter to happen like yesterday. Like you'll do tomorrow in making it even easier to buy guns, so the next person can shoot up a school.

You don't care about children! None of you homophobes and transphobes who are terrorizing innocent people "to protect children!" do! If you fucking cared about kids, you'd be taking action to try to make sure yesterday's shooting never happens again! You'd be working to ensure that when kids get dropped off at school that they come home alive and in one piece!

You're not a leader, Abbutt. You're not protecting kids. You're harming and killing them. And, incidentally, Abbutt? You're a sick fuck.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Abbott and Paxton are using these poor children as pawns

Greg is attacking trans youth as a stunt to get more votes from his bigoted base

Link to tweet

https://texassignal.com/op-ed-greg-abbott-attacked-trans-children-for-right-wing-votes/

The government of Texas is seemingly at war with trans children. In 2021, the Texas Legislature saw more than 40 proposed bills that pushed anti-trans rhetoric, the most in the country. This included a bill signed into law by Governor Abbott that restricted trans youth from participating in school sports. The latest attack on trans children came in February, right before early voting started in the Republican primaries on March 1.

In February 2022, Governor Greg Abbott penned a letter instructing Texas state agencies to begin investigating parents who allow their children to receive gender-affirming care for charges of child abuse. The governor also announced that “doctors, nurses, and teachers” as well as “members of the general public” would be required to report children who “may be subject to such abuse.” This directive essentially turns the Texas public into a vigilante force against trans children and their families, creating unsafe spaces for a group that already faces significant threat from their communities and peers.

How vile does one have to be to harm children? It is genuinely evil to cause parents to fear losing their child purely because they desire necessary medical treatment for their kid, and even more so to force children to fear being taken away from their parents. It is simply nauseating to watch an elected official, who has been tasked with the protection of the people of this state, attack trans youth, one of Texas’s most vulnerable groups.

Despite claims of “protecting our children,” it is clear that this new directive would do the exact opposite. In 2021, the Trevor Project reported that more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. In fact, according to the CDC, the rate of suicide attempt for transgender youth is around three times higher than the rate among cisgender youth. Access to gender-affirming care, such as the pubertal suppression treatment that Abbott’s directive is labeling child abuse, has been proven to significantly lower the odds of suicidal ideation.

[Initech]

25. Those two dipshits should be doing time for crimes against humanity.

As well as their Fox News enablers and cheerleaders. Any deaths that result because of these cruel policies is entirely on them.

[leftyladyfrommo]

26. Anybody that's one bit different needs to get out

of Texas. Cannot even imagine what this is doing to those kids. If you are an adult and you choose to stand abd fight more power to you. But don't put kids in the middle of this horrible situation.