South Korea Martial Law, Transgender Rights Case, French Government Collapse
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Transgender rights comes before the Supreme Court today. The justices hear a challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming hormone treatment for minors. We regulate a number of different types of medical procedures. What are the arguments before the court? And the French government may collapse in the hours ahead. The country's prime minister of just three months faces a no-confidence vote. Why are the far left and the far right joining forces to oust this conservative figure? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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In South Korea, opposition politicians have submitted a motion to impeach the president. This is after the president's failed attempt to put the country under martial law. It's the first such attempt since South Korea went from military rule to democracy in 1987, and it caught its citizens and main ally, the U.S., by surprise. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. I mean, Anthony, this happened really fast within the course of a day or so. How did it all start?

It began when President Yoon Song-yeol declared martial law late Tuesday evening, and he explained to the public that opposition politicians who control parliament are paralyzing the government. They're subverting democracy, and they're aligned with North Korea. But lawmakers in parliament unanimously voted to demand Yoon to cancel martial law, which he then did, as he's required to do by the Constitution.

Yoon's top aides have offered to resign en masse, so is his defense secretary. And opposition lawmakers plan to put the impeachment motion to a vote in parliament as early as Friday or Saturday, so very fast moving. So what was President Yoon trying to accomplish with all this?

Well, Yoon was elected president by a razor-thin margin in 2022. And since then, he's struggled to get his policies and his budgets through parliament. Opposition politicians have impeached his appointees. They've hounded his wife over several scandals. But does that justify martial law? Well, I talked about this with Benjamin Engel, who's a political scientist and a visiting professor at Dangok University just outside Seoul. And here's how he says he talked about it with his colleagues.

I have also been calling it a coup or a self-coup, and I don't think there's really any other way to see it. With the declaration of martial law, we got that decree that basically outlawed democracy. So a self-coup basically means that Yoon was democratically elected president, but in order to hang on to and increase his power, he tried to roll back civil liberties. Okay, so why didn't this work out like he wanted it to?

Well, the declaration of martial law said that parliament was suspended, protests were banned, media was subject to censorship, and anyone who resisted could be arrested. But neither police nor military effectively enforced it. So the attempt to impose martial law was basically defeated within a matter of hours. And, you know, people here have just expressed such disbelief that such a thing could happen in South Korea in 2024.

because martial law was declared several times before 1987 when South Korea was under military rule. Today, South Koreans are far more skeptical of any attempt to deprive them of their rights in the name of a communist threat, and they're not afraid to protest in the streets, and demonstrations are planned or ongoing in Seoul and other cities. I saw that the U.S. embassy in Seoul warned U.S. citizens to be careful and avoid big crowds. What else are they saying about this?

Well, the U.S. embassy said on X that Yoon's announcement to end martial law is a crucial step, and that implies that imposing it in the first place was not a good idea. But they didn't say that. And given the importance of South Korea as an ally, such comments will probably stay behind closed doors. South Korea hosts 28,000 U.S. troops. They're building factories in the U.S. to make high-tech goods.

And they're supposed to be part of a U.S.-led coalition of like-minded democracies. So the logic here may be that publicly criticizing South Korea might give like-minded dictatorships something to celebrate. All right, that's NPR's Anthony Kuhn in Seoul. Anthony, thanks. You're welcome, A.

During this year's election, gender-affirming care for transgender minors was a big issue among voters. Today, that battle over access to this form of health care goes before the Supreme Court. Joining us to discuss is NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. So, Nina, what's at the center of this case? Well, fully half the country, 25 states, have enacted laws that ban or limit gender-affirming care for minors.

In today's case, three Tennessee families are challenging the state bans on puberty blockers, hormones, and other treatments for kids whose gender doesn't align with their sex at birth.

The trans kids and their parents contend that the law unconstitutionally discriminates based on sex because the banned medications are perfectly legal when used to treat other conditions in minors, conditions that range from chronic diseases like endometriosis to early or late-onset puberty.

The ACLU's Chase Strangio is going to be making that argument in the Supreme Court today. He's the first openly trans lawyer to argue before the justices. This is the government of Tennessee displacing the decision-making of loving parents with the recommendations of doctors. And at the end of the day, this law is tailored to one and only one interest, which is to

which is to enforce Tennessee's preference that adolescents conform to their birth sex. Jack Johnson, who introduced the law that's at issue today, counters that the state is charged with regulating medical care in the state. We regulate a number of different types of medical procedures today.

And we felt like this was the best public policy to prevent kids from suffering from irreversible consequences, things that cannot be undone. But Nina, where is the medical profession on all this? You know, in this country, all the major medical organizations that deal with this are on the side of providing treatments for kids, but with lots of guardrails. But the critics of these treatments say that the science is very unsettled.

in its long-term implications. And here, for instance, is what Senator Johnson said. You've got countries in Western Europe that were far ahead of us in terms of these surgeries and these types of medications. They are pulling back because they've had a longer runway, and they're seeing that the adverse effects of some of these medications far outweigh any benefit that they have. Is what Johnson is saying there true?

Well, partially. Some Western European and Scandinavian countries have been at this longer and have cut back on providing this care.

But I'm unaware of any country banning gender dysphoria treatments for kids who are already under this sort of care. And I should note also that in Europe, a lot of these treatments are restricted to research environments. But remember that these are countries that have national health care systems, so they can track how this works out for people at every stage of their lives. And the definition of a research environment may be broader than it is in this country.

So it sounds like a lot of this is still in dispute, right? You betcha. Just to give you an example from my own reporting, one of the parents I interviewed said that in Tennessee, the law bars doctors from even having discussions with kids and their parents about this. And he said that was the case at Vanderbilt University, which has been a center for treating gender dysphoria.

Now, when I asked Senator Johnson about this, he said that certainly wasn't the intent of this bill. And when I called Vanderbilt, it took the institution three days to reply. And what did they say? No comment. That's NPR's Nina Totenberg. Thank you so much, Nina. You're welcome. Thank you.

The French government could fall later today. That's if no-confidence motions brought by the far left and the far right get the votes needed to pass in the lower house of parliament.

The two extremes hold the largest voting blocs in the country's fragmented legislature. The prime minister, who has been in power less than three months, could become one of the shortest-lived in French history. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley joins us now for more on what this means. Eleanor, what's going on in France?

Well, a Prime Minister Michel Barnier could be ousted, which means his government would fall. Could happen as soon as later today if the Parliament approves the no-confidence motions brought by the far left and far right. At issue is the 2025 budget, which attempts to address France's spiraling deficit.

Barnier pushed it through Parliament this week using an emergency clause. He didn't hold a vote because he doesn't have the votes, but he met with party heads to take into account their input. He said he made as many concessions as he could. He told the French on TV last night that it was the best deal possible. Okay, now how are the different coalitions responding?

Well, the far-left France Unbowed Party has been saying for weeks it would punish him if he used this clause to pass the bill. This leftist coalition hates the budget. They want to lower the minimum retirement age back down to 62. They also seem to want to blow up the system, say analysts, and they've even called for President Macron, who they accuse of acting like a monarch, to resign so new presidential elections can be held to end this crisis. But the leftist coalition hates the budget.

But Barnier thought he could succeed because Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Rally Party, has been acting stateswoman-like and said she would stand by the government until she changed her mind over the weekend. So now the extremes who can't stand each other are joining forces to bring down a more centrist prime minister. Okay, so then how did the French parliament end up with two extremes in control?

Well, many blame President Emmanuel Macron. You might remember that over the summer he called surprise snap parliamentary elections when the far right did so well in EU parliament elections. He said he wanted French voters to clarify things. It was a big gamble. He didn't have to do it. And he lost his relative majority and a leftist coalition got the most votes in those elections. But no group has a majority. The parliament is basically split between three mutually detesting blocs, the far left,

center and far right. And what Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said in Parliament yesterday sums up what many people feel. Let's listen. He said some on the extremes are playing out the destiny of France and the French people with a game of Russian roulette. All right, so then what are the consequences possibly?

Well, if the prime minister and his government falls, President Macron will have to name someone else. And it took him three months to find the conciliatory Bonnier, who, by the way, was the Brexit negotiator between Britain and the European Union. So Macron thought he would be able to make deals between French parliamentarians. Macron cannot try to change the makeup of the parliament because he has to wait a year before calling another election.

It plunges France, the Eurozone's second largest economy, into uncertainty and turmoil at crucial time with a war raging in Ukraine and President-elect Donald Trump about to take power. And one more thing really quick. What has Macron said? Well, speaking from Saudi Arabia, he says he has confidence that Parliament will fulfill their responsibility to the nation, and he said he certainly won't resign. All right. That's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley. Eleanor, thanks. You're welcome.

And that's a first for Wednesday, December 4th. I'm A. Martinez. And I'm Leila Faldil. For your next listen, consider this from NPR. President-elect Trump hasn't yet announced plans to wall himself off from his businesses while in office. And those businesses could benefit from his actions as president. Will Trump's next term make him richer? Listen to Consider This from NPR.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Krishna Dev Kalamore, Nick Spicer, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynas, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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