HB 1570 would have taken effect on July 28, 2021, but was stayed on July 21 by federal judge James Moody pending a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on May 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas; the ACLU argued that the statute violated the Constitution. The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the litigation on June 17, asserting that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects transgender youth from discrimination in their access to medical care and also that HB 1570 violates the Constitution.
