The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to transgender rights by upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for adolescents, but legal experts said the ruling was narrower than it could have been and left open the door for challenges to the rising number of government restrictions aimed at transgender people.

The conservative Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to transgender Americans on Wednesday, issuing a sweeping decision that may have implications beyond the medical care that was at center of one of the court’s highest-profile disputes this year.

December, a clutch of dark-suited lawyers descended the steps of the Supreme Court to a hero’s welcome. The lawyers, from the American Civil Liberties Union, had th