Abstract: Do parents have a constitutional right to determine their child’s gender? No court has held that they do, but that assumption was the basis of a challenge brought in August 2023 to Senate Bill 5599 (ESSB 5599)—an amendment to the Washington State Family Reconciliation Act, which protects runaway youth seeking gender-affirming treatment and reproductive health care services from immediate parental notification. Plaintiffs International Partners for Ethical Care (IPEC) and others challenged the bill before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Their claims turn on parental rights, as well as several associated federal and state constitutional claims. The district court dismissed the case with prejudice in May 2024, and the plaintiffs timely appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the following month. The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case in May 2025. Though this case has the potential to climb all the way to the United States Supreme Court, the plaintiffs’ arguments cannot justify a decision in their favor.
The context of ESSB 5599—and of transgender people in the United States more broadly—is vital to understanding this case. Recent years have seen a significant expansion in the rights, visibility, and acceptance of transgender people in the United States. Unfortunately, with that visibility has come a new wave of hatred, and many trans people are preparing for the worst under a second Trump presidency. In this political climate, it is unsurprising that Washington’s protection of gender-affirming treatment for runaway youth has drawn the ire of conservatives across the country. This Comment begins with an exploration of the greater context of ESSB 5599 before considering IPEC’s complaint in greater detail. It then considers standing federal precedent on both parental rights and the rights of transgender people to form a clearer image of the law as it stands. Finally, in order to explain why plaintiffs’ claims in this case must fail, this Comment distinguishes IPEC v. Inslee from early parental rights cases, analogizes to cases on transgender rights and definitions of child abuse and neglect, and proposes a solution that is in line with both established law and the best interests of children.
