Senior Judge Robert Hinkle (appointed by President Clinton) struck down a law banning Florida minors from getting hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones
he also struck down new requirements by the Florida Board of Medicine that required prescriptions for gender-affirming care to be made by a physician instead of a registered nurse or other medical professional, and required in-person appointments for gender-affirming care instead of remote or telehealth appointments.
Judge Hinkle blasted the Florida government declaring "The ban is unconstitutional.” declared that "'prohibiting or impeding individuals from pursuing their transgender identities is not a legitimate state interest" but rather the law was driven by anti-transgender animus” and a “deeply flawed, bias-driven” report from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender,” Hinkle wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Some transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position, just as some once invoked religion to support their racism or misogyny,” Judge Hinkle wrote in his 105-page decision. “Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender.
“In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished,” he continued. “To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
A woman who made hundreds of threatening phone calls to the Tree of Life synagogue and its executive director was sentenced Thursday to 32 months in prison and three years of supervised release, closing a saga that began just months after 11 congregants were killed there in an antisemitic attack.
Melanie Harris, 59, made her first phone call to the synagogue and its executive director, Joel Goldstein, in February 2019. In various voicemails left over the next few years, she referenced victims of the October 2018 massacre, used antisemitic slurs and said, “I’ll cut your f—ing head off.”
Harris was arrested in March 2023 in Riverside, California, and pleaded guilty to knowingly and intentionally transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce.
The Tree of Life synagogue did not respond to a request for comment.
After serving Tree of Life for more than 20 years, Goldstein left the position and moved with his family to Florida, but the calls continued. Harris called him more than 240 times in total, according to the plea agreement, including one day in October 2022 in which she left Goldstein 15 voicemails.