From upholding laws that require sites like PornHub to verify user age to allowing states to restrict gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors, Utah’s top legal official sees the U.S. Supreme Court’s just-wrapped term as a victory.
“I think this helps the state of Utah,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown told KUER.
The high court agreed to hear 65 cases and issued 67 opinions during its October 2024 term. But Utah had its eyes on a few high-profile cases. Here’s where they ended up:
- Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton – In a 6-3 decision, justices ruled states can require adult content sites to verify the age of users. Utah passed a law doing exactly that in 2023. As a result, PornHub blocked Utahns from accessing the site. The Free Speech Coalition sued Utah over the law, but the case was later dismissed by a district court judge. The case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court considered a similar law in Texas.
- Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado – The unanimous decision backed the expansion of the Uinta Basin Railway, which connects the oil-rich region of northeast Utah to a national rail network. The justices agreed that using the National Environmental Policy Act to block the project’s expansion was too heavy-handed, and that a small scope for an environmental review was appropriate.
- United States v. Skrmetti – The 6-3 decision allows states to restrict gender-affirming care, like surgeries and hormone therapy, for transgender minors. Utah is one of 27 states that have passed restrictions on the kind of health care transgender youth can receive, though no lawsuit has been brought against Utah over the policy. The lawsuit that made its way to the justices was over Tennessee’s law.
- Oklahoma v. Environmental Protection Agency – Utah has long fought over air quality standards set by the EPA. This unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court provides direction on where lawsuits challenging EPA air quality regulations should be filed. If there is a fight over air quality in a local region that doesn’t have nationwide consequences, the lawsuit should be filed at the regional level and not the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Utah joined the case with Oklahoma, and the court sided with the states.
- Trump v. CASA, Inc. – While the high court never answered the legal question about the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping birthright citizenship, it did limit the scope of injunctions. In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court said universal injunctions issued by federal courts that can block laws nationwide constitutes judicial overreach. Instead, federal courts can issue injunctions solely in their district. That means the president’s executive order is currently blocked in 22 states — and Utah is not one of them. Attorney General Brown signed onto an amicus brief supporting Trump’s executive order to remove birthright citizenship.
To Brown, the Supreme Court followed two themes this term.
“One is the ability of states to take specific actions that they believe protect the minors in their states,” he said. “And then the other theme is that of allowing states to make decisions as opposed to the federal government.”
All of the decisions pertinent to Utah, aside from the birthright citizenship one, “gives states more power and reduces the power of the executive branch to some degree.” He was particularly pleased with the age verification decision and the two environmental decisions handed down from the court.
The court agreed to take up another challenge involving the participation of transgender athletes in school sports next term. The case will argue the laws on the books in West Virginia and neighboring Idaho. Brown is hopeful the justices’ record will fall on Utah’s side. The state is currently tied up in litigation over its law that bans transgender girls from playing public school sports.
“The overall theme and message by the court is that if states are taking actions to protect their citizens, to protect kids, I think under the 10th Amendment, they're going to give them pretty wide latitude and discretion to do that,” he said.
While Brown believes the high court’s term theme was bolstering state rights and protecting minors, attorney and former Democratic candidate for Utah Attorney General Greg Skordas doesn’t view it that way. He said it feels like the theme was backing the Trump administration’s agenda.
Skordas also doesn’t believe the court’s decisions will impact existing state law that much, mostly because it aligns with what the Republican supermajority has already voted in.
“They are consistent with the Utah lawmakers,” he said. “Utahns are probably not taking a lot of issue with what the Supreme Court did. Certainly, our Legislature is not.”
Moving forward, Skordas thinks the Legislature could feel emboldened to pass more conservative policies because they will be supported by the Supreme Court.
“They can feel like at least they know where the wind is blowing and that the court is going to support certain ideologies.”
