Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told Newsmax Tuesday that obtaining Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine’s records is “essential” for their case involving a state law blocking gender-affirming care for minors.
The Department of Justice asked to join a lawsuit against an Alabama law that makes it a felony to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to minors.
Marshall said on Newsline, “Their argument defies common sense. There's no doubt that Dr. Levine has been the most public-facing proponent of so-called gender-affirming care for young people.
"If you're going to intervene as the Department of Justice of the United States and a law for Alabamians where we want to protect our kids, then you ought to be able to open up your records for us to explore why it is you think what we're doing is inappropriate.”
Marshall added, “We’re going to continue to be able to pursue allowing our law to be put in place, a wonderful victory in the 11th Circuit here recently that removed the injunction for Alabama's law to be able to be in place now while it's being challenged. But the reality is that it's only a partial victory because we have a trial set in April, where it's the responsibility of the state of Alabama to prove it's reasonable belief that protecting kids by not allowing this so-called treatment to take place is the appropriate standard of care.”
He continued, “Getting the records is obviously essential to us and being able to push back against the United States government who made the affirmative decision to be able to intervene in our case. And if they believe what we're doing is wrong, we have a right to be able to challenge that.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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