Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti took action on Friday to defend state laws protecting children from life-altering transgender procedures and sexually explicit performances, after judges limited both measures. 

The legal moves from Skrmetti come after portions of two laws passed by the Tennessee legislature were blocked in the last month by federal judges. First, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that a law shielding children from being exposed to “adult cabaret” performances, including sexually explicit drag shows, was unconstitutional. Then on June 29, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson placed a temporary injunction against the ban on giving children cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, 

Both laws passed with widespread support this year in the Tennessee legislature, where Republicans have a supermajority of seats. 

On Friday, Skrmetti filed a notice of appeal against Parker’s ruling striking down the law related to sexually explicit performances, which Parker claimed was “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.”

“The language defining ‘harmful to minors’ that the court found unconstitutionally vague has appeared in various parts of the Tennessee code for 33 years and is found in other laws that prevent adults from grooming kids with pornography, strip clubs from opening next to schools, and schools from letting kids access pornography on the school internet,” Skrmetti said. “We’re appealing to ensure Tennessee’s laws continue to protect Tennessee’s kids.”

In a separate legal action, Skrmetti filed a motion for an emergency stay from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals after Richardson placed a temporary injunction on Tennessee’s prohibition of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers for children, which have been shown to have life-altering impacts. 

“If Tennessee wishes to regulate access to certain medical procedures, it must do so in a manner that does not infringe on the rights conferred by the United States Constitution, which is of course supreme to all other laws of the land. With regard to SB1, Tennessee has likely failed to do just this,” Richardson wrote in his ruling.

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Richardson’s ruling just temporarily blocks the law, which was set to go into effect on July 1, but will now be held while a suit against the law is adjudicated.

“Until the American medical establishment catches up with the rest of the world on this issue, we will continue to defend the General Assembly’s authority to protect children from these irreversible harms,” Skrmetti said. 

Federal judges have blocked similar state laws in Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, and Arkansas.

Related: Matt Walsh Deconstructs ‘Astonishingly Bad’ Ruling Blocking Ban On Minor Sex-Change Procedures

U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the federal prosecutor in Delaware overseeing the criminal case against Hunter Biden, sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Friday addressing “two issues” that have made news in recent weeks.

Hunter, who had been facing a multi-year investigation by officials, negotiated a deal with Weiss, a Trump nominee, earlier this month. Hunter will plead guilty to failing to pay about $100,000 in taxes for 2017 and for failing to pay a similar amount for 2018. The tax charges Hunter faces are misdemeanors.

He is expected to not face any jail time and to be given two years of probation.

Since the deal was made public, IRS whistleblowers came forward and alleged that Attorney General Merrick Garland interfered with the investigation and that the IRS agents were retaliated against.

In the letter to Jordan, Weiss said that he could not address specifics at this time about the whistleblowers’ allegations that pertain to the “criminal investigation that is now being prosecuted in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.”

While he said he could not divulge information related to the investigation at this time, he did say that he wanted to “provide some general insight on two issues.”

“First, the Department of Justice did not retaliate against ‘an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and whistleblower, as well as his entire investigative team… for making protected disclosures to Congress,'” he wrote.

“Second, in my June 7 letter I stated, ‘I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges and for making decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, consistent with federal law, the Principles of Federal Prosecution, and Departmental regulations,'” he continued. “I stand by what I wrote and wish to expand on what this means.”

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“As the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, my charging authority is geographically limited to my home district,” he said. “If venue for a case lies elsewhere, common Departmental practice is to contact the United States Attorney’s Office for the district in question and determine whether it wants to partner on the case. If not, I may request Special Attorney status from the Attorney General pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 515. Here, I have been assured that, if necessary after the above process, I would be granted § 515 Authority in the District of Columbia, the Central District of California, or any other district where charges could be brought in this matter.”

“At the appropriate time, I welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics with the Committee in more detail, and answer questions related to the whistleblowers’ allegations consistent with the law and Department policy,” he concluded. “It is my understanding that the Office of Legislative Affairs will work with the Committee to discuss appropriate timeline and scope.”

Breaking:

David Weiss letter to Rep. Jim Jordan regarding Hunter Biden probe pic.twitter.com/BXrghajmH3

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) July 1, 2023