All eyes were on Justice Neil Gorsuch ahead of Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the constitutionality of gender-affirming care bans for transgender youth.
The Trump-appointed conservative justice emerged as an unlikely trans rights ally when he wrote the court’s opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County. The case ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against people “merely for being gay or transgender.”
But as the arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti transpired, Gorsuch did not seem interested in the spotlight: He was the only member of the court who did not ask any questions and even declined Chief Justice John Roberts when he tried to give him the opportunity to ask something.