Judge rejects push by Missouri AG to move transgender care lawsuit to federal court

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s last-minute push to move a lawsuit challenging restrictions on transgender care to federal court was denied Wednesday, with a federal judge ruling the matter belonged back in state court.

“You just can’t file something in federal court just because you want to be in federal court,” District Judge Henry Edward Autrey told Bailey’s top deputy, Solicitor General Josh Divine, during a Wednesday hearing. “There is something that sometimes bites people in the behind called jurisdiction.”

The lawsuit was originally filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, and was scheduled for a hearing in that jurisdiction Wednesday afternoon — one day before Bailey’s emergency rule limiting access to gender-affirming care is set to take effect.

After the attorney general’s office sought to move the lawsuit to a United States District Court, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and Lambda Legal requested the judge remand it, or send it back to its original jurisdiction.



https://missouriindependent.com/2023/04/26/judge-rejects-push-by-missouri-ag-to-move-transgender-care-lawsuit-to-federal-court/