Maine lawmakers are working on a legislative plan that would interfere in other states’ application of their own laws, and that has drawn a rebuke for a coalition of attorneys general.
The scolding comes in a letter from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who was joined by a long list of other state AGs.
The letter addresses Maine’s proposed LD 277, which purportedly would provide protections for the transgender industry, patients and providers alike.
“LD 227 seeks to contravene the lawful policy choices of our states’ citizens by imposing on the rest of the country Maine’s views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children,” the letter explains. “The law’s far-reaching provisions are unprecedented. LD 227 not only purports to shield from liability those offering or aiding the provision of unlawful services to citizens located in our states … The law also creates a private right of action for damages against law enforcement, prosecutors, and other officials in our states who are enforcing our own valid state laws, even laws whose constitutionality has been confirmed by federal appellate courts.”
The letter continues, “On top of that, LD227 purports to block valid orders and judgments from our state courts enforcing laws upheld by federal appellate courts. As currently drafted, LD 227 violates the United States Constitution and flouts the federalist structure that allows each of our States to engage in self-government responsive to the will of our citizens.
“The federal Constitution, in short, precludes Maine’s novel effort at state-sanctioned culture war litigation tourism.”
A report from Fox News said Maine essentially is trying to be “a sanctuary state for procedures like sex-change surgeries for minors.”
That, the report described, is “totalitarian.”
“In other words, a parent whose child went to Maine for a sex-change surgery would have no legal recourse, even though they live in a state where such operations are illegal.”
Fox said, “Skrmetti and the others say that LD 227 would undermine the ‘lawful policy choices’ of their respective states’ citizens ‘by imposing on the rest of the country Maine’s views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children.’”
The failings of the plan include that it would “form a liability shield to anyone aiding or offering unlawful services to out-of-state citizens” and “create a private right of action for damages against law enforcement, prosecutors, and other officials in states who are enforcing their respective state laws, even laws whose constitutionality has been confirmed by federal appellate courts.”
The letter warned, too, of what could become a dangerous tit-for-tat war.
“If one State does not like another State’s regulatory regime with respect to cars, or food, or alcohol distribution, or whatever else, it could create a tenuous jurisdictional hook to allow the same sort of extraterritorial bullying attempted by LD 227. State officials would be dragged into legal battles in far-flung jurisdictions, thwarting their ability to focus on protecting their own citizens consistent with their own duly-enacted laws.”
Since Joe Biden took office and made promoting transgenderism, especially for children, a key agenda for his administration, states have divided. Some have gone the route of protecting children from life-altering and body-mutilating surgeries; others have promoted those very activities.
