Groom principal Xavier Baker joined Law360 for their article, “Employer Plans In Limbo As Courts Grapple With Trans Care,” where he discussed how the courts’ upholding of bans on gender-affirming care for minors could play out, forecasting employers’ discrimination allegation defense could be rooted in an age-based exclusion rather than a sex-based exclusion.
“What I think is really interesting, and what we haven’t seen yet, but I think is coming,” Baker said, “is when you look at the holding of [the Eighth Circuit], or the holding from Skrmetti, and how it may be used in other contexts.”
Law360 reports that, “Baker said he expects that more employers facing allegations of discrimination over gender-affirming care exclusions might try to argue under those decisions’ reasoning that their exclusions are based on age and diagnosis and not sex.”
“To the extent that plan sponsors or benefit plans have exclusionary language that fits within that framework, I think Skrmetti lays out a blueprint that could be used to defend those types of exclusions,” Baker said.
To read the article, click here.
