By: Toth H.B. No. 2258
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
imposing private civil liability on anyone who causes or
contributes to the social transitioning of a minor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. This Act shall be known as the Vulnerable Youth
Protection Act.
SECTION 2. Chapter 161, Health and Safety Code, is amended
by adding Subchapter Y to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER Y. VULNERABLE YOUTH PROTECTION ACT
Sec. 161.711. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Castration, sterilization, or mutilation of a
minor" means any of the procedures or treatments prohibited in
Subchapter X, Chapter 161, Health and Safety Code, regardless of
who performs or provides those procedures or treatments. It does
not include any of the conduct described in Section 161.703, Health
and Safety Code.
(2) "Social transitioning" means any act by which a
minor child adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from
the child's biological sex as determined by the sex organs,
chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the child. This can
include but is not limited to changes in clothing, pronouns,
hairstyle, and name.
Sec. 161.712. CAUSING OR CONTRIBUTING TO THE TRANSITIONING
OF A MINOR. (a) Any person who causes or contributes to:
(1) The social transitioning of a minor; or
(2) The castration, sterilization, or mutilation of a
minor,
shall be strictly, absolutely, and jointly and severally
liable to the child and the child's parents for any personal
injuries or harm resulting from the conduct described in this
subsection, PROVIDED, that no person may be held liable under this
section for speech or conduct protected by the First Amendment of
the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states
through the Supreme Court of the United States' interpretations of
the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, or by
Article 1, ยง 8 of the Texas State Constitution.
(b) A person who prevails in a suit brought under this
section shall be entitled to recover:
(1) nominal damages;
(2) compensatory damages;
(3) statutory damages in an amount of not less than
$10,000.00 from each defendant, in addition to any compensatory
damages that may be awarded; and
(4) punitive damages in an amount of not less than
$10,000,000.00 from each defendant if irreversible sterilization
or sexual dysfunction results, in addition to any compensatory
damages that may be awarded; and
(5) costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
(c) Notwithstanding any other law, a person may bring an
action under this section not later than the 20th anniversary of the
date the cause of action accrues.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, the following are not a
defense to an action brought under this section:
(1) ignorance or mistake of law;
(2) a defendant's belief that the requirements or
provisions of this subchapter are unconstitutional or were
unconstitutional;
(3) a defendant's reliance on any court decision that
has been vacated, reversed, or overruled on appeal or by a
subsequent court, even if that court decision had not been vacated,
reversed, or overruled when the conduct described in subsection
(a) occurred;
(4) a defendant's reliance on any state or federal
court decision that is not binding on the court in which the action
has been brought;
(5) a defendant's reliance on any federal statute,
agency rule or action, or treaty that has been repealed,
superseded, or declared invalid or unconstitutional, even if that
federal statute, agency rule or action, or treaty had not been
repealed, superseded, or declared invalid or unconstitutional when
the conduct described in subsection (a) occurred;
(6) non-mutual issue preclusion or non-mutual claim
preclusion;
(7) the consent of the plaintiff to the defendant's
conduct;
(8) contributory or comparative negligence;
(9) assumption of risk;
(10) lack of but-for or proximate causation;
(11) sovereign immunity, governmental immunity,
official immunity, or qualified immunity;
(12) the plaintiff's waiver or purported waiver of
their right to sue under this section;
(13) the plaintiff's failure to exhaust administrative
remedies; or
(14) any claim that the enforcement of this subchapter
or the imposition of civil liability against the defendant will
violate the constitutional rights of third parties, except as
provided by Subsection (h).
(e) Notwithstanding any other law, including Chapter 17,
Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the courts of this state shall
have personal jurisdiction over any defendant sued under this
section to the maximum extent permitted by the Fourteenth Amendment
to the United States Constitution.
(f) Notwithstanding any other law, the law of Texas shall
apply to any gender-transitioning treatment provided to a resident
or citizen of Texas, regardless of where that treatment occurred,
and to any civil action brought under this Section, to the maximum
extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution of Texas. Any contractual choice-of-law provision
that purports to require the law of a different jurisdiction to
apply shall be void as against public policy, and may not be
enforced in any state or federal court. This section shall apply
extraterritorially to the maximum extent permitted by the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Texas.
(g) A civil action under this section may not be brought
against any person that acted at the behest of federal agencies,
contractors, or employees that are carrying out duties under
federal law, if the imposition of liability upon that person would
violate the doctrines of preemption or intergovernmental immunity.
(h) A defendant against whom an action is brought under this
section may assert an affirmative defense to liability under this
subsection if:
(1) the imposition of liability on the defendant will
violate constitutional or federally protected rights that belong to
the defendant personally; or
(2) the defendant
(A) has standing to assert the rights of a third
party under the tests for third-party standing established by the
Supreme Court of the United States; and
(B) demonstrates that the imposition of
liability on the defendant will violate constitutional or federally
protected rights belonging to that third party.
(i) Nothing in this section or subchapter shall limit or
preclude a defendant from asserting the unconstitutionality of any
provision or application of Texas law as a defense to liability
under this section, or from asserting any other defense that might
be available under any other source of law.
(j) Notwithstanding any other law, this section shall be
enforced exclusively through the private civil actions described in
Subsections (a) and (b). No direct or indirect enforcement of this
section may be taken or threatened by the state, a political
subdivision, a district or county attorney, or any officer or
employee of this state or a political subdivision against any
person or entity, by any means whatsoever, and the conduct
described in Subsection (a) may not be used to justify or trigger
the enforcement of any other law or any type of adverse consequence
under any other law, except through the private civil actions
described in Subsections (a) and (b). This section does not
preclude or limit the enforcement of any other law or regulation
against conduct that is independently prohibited by such other law
or regulation, and that would remain prohibited by such other law or
regulation in the absence of this section.
(k) Notwithstanding any other law, neither the state, nor
any of its political subdivisions, nor any district or county
attorney, nor any officer or employee of this state or a political
subdivision may:
(1) act in concert or participation with anyone who
brings suit under this section;
(2) establish or attempt to establish any type of
agency or fiduciary relationship with a person who brings suit
under this section;
(3) make any attempt to control or influence a person's
decision to bring suit under this section or that person's conduct
of the litigation; or
(4) intervene in any action brought under this
section.
This subsection does not prohibit a person or entity
described by this subsection from filing an amicus curiae brief in
the action, so long as that person or entity does not act in concert
or participation with the plaintiff or plaintiffs who sue under
this section or violate any provision of Subsection (k)(1)-(4).
(l) Notwithstanding any other law, a civil action under this
section shall not be subject to any provision of Chapter 27, Civil
Practice and Remedies Code, or Chapter 110, Civil Practice and
Remedies Code.
(m) Notwithstanding any other law, including Rule 42 of the
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, a civil action under this section
may not be litigated on behalf of a plaintiff class or a defendant
class, and no court may certify a class under Rule 42 of the Texas
Rules of Civil Procedure in any civil action brought under this
section.
(n) Any waiver or purported waiver of the right to sue under
this section shall be void as against public policy, and shall not
be enforceable in any court.
Sec. 161.713. IMMUNITY FROM SUIT AND LIMITS ON STATE-COURT
JURISDICTION. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the state and
each of its officers and employees shall have sovereign immunity,
its political subdivisions and each of their officers and employees
shall have governmental immunity, and each officer and employee of
this state or a political subdivision shall have official immunity
(as well as sovereign or governmental immunity, as appropriate) in
any action, claim, counterclaim, or any type of legal or equitable
action that challenges the validity or enforceability of any
provision or application of this subchapter, on constitutional
grounds or otherwise, or that seeks to prevent or enjoin the state,
its political subdivisions, or any officer, employee, or agent of
this state or a political subdivision from enforcing any provision
or application of this subchapter, or from hearing, adjudicating,
or docketing a civil action brought under Section 161.712, unless
that immunity has been abrogated or preempted by federal law in a
manner consistent with the Constitution of the United States. The
sovereign immunity conferred by this section upon the state and
each of its officers and employees includes the constitutional
sovereign immunity recognized by the Supreme Court of the United
States in Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 (1996),
and Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706 (1999), which applies in both
state and federal court and which may not be abrogated by Congress
or by any state or federal court except pursuant to congressional
legislation authorized by section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, by
the Bankruptcy Clause of Article I, or by Congress's powers to raise
and support Armies and to provide and maintain a Navy, or by any
other ground that might be recognized by the Supreme Court of the
United States.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the immunities conferred
by Subsection (a) shall apply in every court, both state and
federal, and in every adjudicative proceeding of any type
whatsoever.
(c) Notwithstanding any other law, no provision of state law
may be construed to waive or abrogate an immunity described in
Subsection (a) unless it expressly waives or abrogates immunity
with specific reference to this section.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, no attorney representing
the state, its political subdivisions, or any officer, employee, or
agent of this state or a political subdivision is authorized or
permitted to waive an immunity described in Subsection (a) or take
any action that would result in a waiver of that immunity, and any
such action or purported waiver shall be regarded as a legal nullity
and an ultra vires act.
(e) Notwithstanding any other law, including Chapter 37,
Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and sections 22.002, 22.221, and
24.007 through 24.011, Government Code, no court of this state may
award declaratory or injunctive relief, or any type of stay or writ,
including a writ of prohibition, that would pronounce any
provision or application of this subchapter invalid or
unconstitutional, or that would restrain or prevent the state, its
political subdivisions, any officer, employee, or agent of this
state or a political subdivision, or any person from enforcing any
provision or application of this subchapter, or from hearing,
adjudicating, docketing, or filing a civil action brought under
Section 161.712, and no court of this state shall have jurisdiction
to consider any action, claim, or counterclaim that seeks such
relief, and no such action, claim, or counterclaim may be litigated
on behalf of a plaintiff or defendant class, notwithstanding Rule
42 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, and no court may certify a
plaintiff or defendant class in any action seeking the relief
described in this Subsection.
(f) Nothing in this section or subchapter shall be construed
to prevent a litigant from asserting the invalidity or
unconstitutionality of any provision or application of this
subchapter as a defense to any action, claim, or counterclaim
brought against that litigant.
Sec. 161.714. SEVERABILITY. (a) Mindful of Leavitt v.
Jane L., 518 U.S. 137 (1996), in which in the context of determining , 518 U.S. 137 (1996), in which in the context of determining
the severability of a state statute the Supreme Court of the United
States held that an explicit statement of legislative intent is
controlling, it is the intent of the legislature that every
provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word
in this subchapter, and every application of the provisions in this
subchapter to every person, group of persons, or circumstances,
are severable from each other.
(b) If any application of any provision in this subchapter
to any person, group of persons, or circumstances is found by a
court to be invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional, for any reason
whatsoever, then the remaining applications of that provision to
all other persons and circumstances shall be severed and preserved,
and shall remain in effect. All constitutionally valid applications
of the provisions in this subchapter shall be severed from any
applications that a court finds to be invalid, preempted, or
unconstitutional, because it is the legislature's intent and
priority that every single valid application of every statutory
provision be allowed to stand alone.
(c) The legislature further declares that it would have
enacted this subchapter, and each provision, section, subsection,
sentence, clause, phrase, or word, and all constitutional
applications of the provisions of this subchapter, irrespective of
the fact that any provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause,
phrase, or word, or applications of this subchapter were to be
declared invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional.
(d) If any provision of this subchapter is found by any
court to be unconstitutionally vague, then the applications of that
provision that do not present constitutional vagueness problems
shall be severed and remain in force, consistent with the
severability requirements of Subsections (a), (b), and (c).
(e) No court may decline to enforce the severability
requirements of Subsections (a), (b), (c), and (d) on the ground
that severance would "rewrite" the statute or involve the court in
legislative or lawmaking activity. A court that declines to
enforce or enjoins a state official from enforcing a statutory
provision is never rewriting a statute or engaging in legislative
or lawmaking activity, as the statute continues to contain the same
words as before the court's decision. A judicial injunction or
declaration of unconstitutionality:
(1) is nothing more than an edict prohibiting
enforcement of the disputed statute against the named parties to
that lawsuit, which may subsequently be vacated by a later court if
that court has a different understanding of the requirements of the
Texas Constitution or United States Constitution;
(2) is not a formal amendment of the language in a
statute; and
(3) no more rewrites a statute than a decision by the
executive not to enforce a duly enacted statute in a limited and
defined set of circumstances.
(f) If any state or federal court disregards any of the
severability requirements in Subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), or
(e), and declares or finds any provision of this subchapter
facially invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional, when there are
discrete applications of that provision can be enforced against a
person, group of persons, or circumstances without violating
federal law or the federal or state constitutions, then that
provision shall be interpreted, as a matter of state law, as if the
legislature had enacted a provision limited to the persons, group
of persons, or circumstances for which the provision's application
will not violate federal law or the federal or state constitutions,
and every court and every state official shall adopt this saving
construction of that provision until the court ruling that
pronounced the provision facially invalid, preempted, or
unconstitutional is vacated or overruled.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.