Humza Yousaf has said it is a "dark day for devolution" after the Scottish Government lost a landmark court battle over its gender reform bill.
A judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Friday (December 8) ruled the UK Government was within its rights to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, despite its being approved in Holyrood.
Reacting to the news, The First Minister said: "Today's judgment confirms beyond doubt that devolution is fundamentally flawed. The Court has confirmed that legislation passed by a majority in Holyrood can be struck down by Westminster.
Read more: Humza Yousaf loses landmark court case on gender reform
"The only way to guarantee we get true self-government is through independence. This is a dark day for devolution.
"Sovereignty should lie with the people of Scotland, not a Westminster Government we didn't vote for with the ability to overrule our laws.
"We, of course, respect the Court's judgment and will take time to consider its findings."
Mr Yousaf is now facing a decision whether to appeal the ruling at the Court's Inner House, and eventually at the Supreme Court.
Read more: Yousaf urged not to add to £230,000 bill after gender reform court defeat
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was blocked from becoming law by Conservative minister Alister Jack, who said it would create problems with different equality laws in different parts of the UK.
The Minister for Scotland said: "I welcome the Court's judgment, which upholds my decision to prevent the Scottish Government's gender recognition legislation from becoming law.
"I was clear that this legislation would have had adverse effects on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, including on important Great Britain-wide equality protections.
"Following this latest Court defeat for the Scottish Government, their ministers need to stop wasting taxpayers' money pursuing needless legal action and focus on the real issues which matter to people in Scotland - such as growing the economy and cutting waiting lists."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel