A federal appeals court has ruled that Florida can move forward with its lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics over the organization’s public statements regarding gender-transition procedures for minors.
The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a June 22 injunction issued by a Chicago-based district court. That lower court ruling had blocked Florida from pursuing its claims. Following the appeals court decision, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the development on social media.
“CA7 saw right through the Chicago-based district court’s attempt to stop our lawsuit against AAP for their deception on the safety of mutilating procedures on kids and removed every barrier the court tried to put up,” Uthmeier posted Wednesday. “Accountability will proceed in Florida!”
The legal battle began in December 2025 when Uthmeier sued the AAP, alleging that the organization promoted sex-change procedures for minors as safe and reversible without sufficient scientific evidence. On June 8, federal judge Matthew Kennedy of Illinois ruled that Florida’s claim could not continue. Kennedy wrote in an earlier June 2 order that the attorney general was “retaliating against AAP without a reasonable expectation of success.”
Kennedy issued the June 22 injunction on the bench rather than holding a hearing with a standard three-judge panel. In a dissenting opinion regarding that decision, Judge Scuddler called the injunction a “grievous blow to federalism.”
The AAP fought Uthmeier’s subsequent appeal, arguing in a June 9 court filing that allowing it to proceed “would allow Uthmeier to resume the retaliatory and unconstitutional enforcement action in Florida state court that the district court determined is causing irreparable harm to AAP while this Court considers the stay motion.”
A coalition of 21 other state attorneys general filed an amicus brief on June 11 to support Florida’s appeal, criticizing the Illinois district court’s handling of Florida state law.
“No Florida court has yet ruled that the Attorney General’s claims are utterly without merit under Florida law, and it very well may turn out that the Attorney General will win his lawsuit in state court,” the coalition wrote. “But the district court did not even attempt to discern how Florida courts would apply their law (as one would expect a federal court to do in any case about state law). It did not cite a single Florida decision. Rather, this Illinois-based district court considered one factor only—its own view of what makes for a ‘weak’ claim.”
While the current ruling allows Florida to resume its legal action in state court, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is still formally considering the AAP’s overall appeal. Representatives for Uthmeier’s office and the AAP did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the latest ruling.
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