Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sat down for an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Friday to detail last week’s oral arguments in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case United States v. Skrmetti and how the nation is perceiving the case in the days after.
Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, a case challenging Tennessee’s law that bans irreversible gender transitioning treatments for minors.
The legal challenge to Tennessee’s law was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), families of transgender children, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice defended the state law before the Supreme Court during oral arguments last week, to which Skrmetti praised Rice’s performance.
“[Rice] did a better job than I thought he would do though. He was really good. The only criticism I’ve seen is from people who are so obviously locked in on the other side that they’re just offended that anyone would disagree with them. Everybody remotely objective recognizes he hit it out of the park,” Skrmetti said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting how arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court and being pressed by the justices is “tough,” Skrmetti said Rice handled the pressure “like a rockstar.”
“He got some tough questions, and it’s not just tough questions – it’s tough questions from a Supreme Court justice, which as a former law school student, is particularly intimidating. You never want to judge yelling at you, but when it’s in the Supreme Court, it’s tough,” Skrmetti said.
“He is a rockstar. I knew he was going to do a good job,” Skrmetti added.
Skrmetti also commented on the support his team had while arguing the case in front of the Supreme Court, noting how multiple members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation as well as state leaders made the trip to Washington D.C. last week for the case.
“The governor was up there….We had, probably, a dozen legislators come up. There were big rallies out in front of the court on both sides, and we had a significant attendance. I got a lot of encouragement from the federal delegation. The Secretary of State came up, so there was a really good crowd of Tennesseans up there cheering us on and I think everybody really appreciated that,” Skrmetti said.
Regarding the coverage of the case in the days after oral arguments were heard last week, Skrmetti explained that he has embarked on a media tour to defend Tennessee’s law as it is important for the general public to understand the “facts in the case.”
“There’s an advocacy element to just making sure that not only is your side provided in court, but that it’s part of the conversation more broadly. If we left a vacuum there, then there’s a really strong emotional story from the other side, and you don’t want that to run unchecked because emotions are valid, people’s feelings are valid, but medical evidence and the law are also very valid and really important to the outcome of this case,” Skrmetti explained.
“So our plan was to get around as much as possible and just make sure that we were putting out the underlying facts, making sure people understood that our side wasn’t that we hate kids with gender dysphoria. Our position was that this is a reasonable law in light of the evidence, and the state has the constitutional authority to do this. So I wanted to be very measured about it,” Skrmetti added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
