ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court has reversed previous court rulings that found a Georgia county illegally discriminated against a sheriff’s deputy by failing to pay for her gender-affirming surgery.

In its ruling Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in an 8-5 decision that Houston County’s policy of denying coverage did not violate the civil rights of sheriff’s Sgt. Anna Lange.

The decision of the full Atlanta-based appeals court overturned a three-judge appeals panel and a lower-court ruling that both found the refusal to cover Lange’s prescribed gender-affirmation surgery amounted to illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“The County’s plan draws a line between certain treatments, which it covers, and other treatments, which it does not,

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