The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that state agencies in Texas can investigate gender-affirming care as child abuse, but that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is not required to conduct such investigations. On February 18, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion stating that many forms of gender-affirming care “may legally constitute child abuse” under Texas law. On February 22, Governor Greg Abbott directed Texas state agencies to investigate gender-affirming care as child abuse in accordance with Paxton’s opinion. The ACLU and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Does, a family with a transgender daughter, and Dr. Megan Mooney, a doctor who provides care to transgender youth. On March 2, a district court implemented a temporary injunction to stop any investigation. . Texas took an interlocutory appeal, superseding the court order. However, an appeals court issued a temporary order on March 21 “restoring the temporary injunction in its entirety.” The state sought relief from the supreme court of that order. The supreme court recognized that, under Rule 29.3 of the Texas appellate procedure, the appellate court can make temporary orders “to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable harm.” However, the rule “clearly limits the scope of available relief to what is necessary to preserve the rights of the parties.” Therefore, the supreme court ruled that the parts of the injunction that apply to “any and all persons” in Texas are invalid. in the final sentence of the letter, and we are not addressed to any,” although DFPS may have believed that it was obligated to follow the directive. As a result, the court explained:[W]We are left with (1) an appeals court order protecting only the plaintiffs against actions by DFPS and its Commissioner, and not against the Governor; (2) a non-binding Attorney General Opinion; (3) a non-binding statement from the Governor; and (4) a state agency, DFPS, with the same discretion to investigate allegations of child abuse as it had prior to the issuance of Attorney General’s Opinion No. KP-0401 and the Governor’s letter. The ACLU, the ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal released a statement calling the decision “a victory.” The organizations commented, “[t]Although the court limited its order to the Doe family and Dr. Mooney, it reaffirmed that Texas law has not changed and that no mandated reporter or DFPS employee is required to take any action based on the Governor’s directive. and the opinion of the attorney general.”