The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth(C), acting Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal judge has ruled in favor of three transgender women who asked not to be transferred to male prisons across the country, saying they will face harm, humiliation and possible sexual assault, which they have suffered in the past.
In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by the late Republican President Ronald Reagan, sided with Jane, Mary and Sara Doe, who said their constitutional harms would arise if they were placed male prisons. They also argued that if they were denied hormone therapy, that would exacerbate their gender dysphoria and could lead to harmful behavior and even suicide.
In doing so, the judge blocked the Bureau of Prisons from moving the women, who are now incarcerated at undisclosed female facilities, to male prisons.
Lamberth’s ruling is called a temporary restraining order and is in effect for 14 days.
Further litigation by both sides is likely, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers said they will push for a permanent ruling.
“Plaintiffs have straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow” if their request is denied, the judge wrote. “The plaintiffs cited to various government reports and regulations recognizing that transgender persons are at a significantly elevated risk of physical and sexual violence relative to other inmates when housed in a facility corresponding to their biological sex — which the defendants do not dispute.”
The BOP’s only “substantial retort” to the prisoners’ arguments is that the “matter is not yet ripe for the court’s review,” because the agency hasn’t yet decided where the trans women will be sent, nor formulated a new policy on hormone therapy based on President Donald Trump’s executive order.
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Trump’s Jan. 20 order states that men should not be detained in women’s prisons and that no federal funds are spent on hormone therapy.
“Neither of these arguments is persuasive,” Lamberth wrote.
The judge noted that there are only 16 transgender women housed in women’s prisons, which includes the three plaintiffs.
And Lamberth said that the BOP have not claimed that the transgender women will present any threat to the women incarcerated at the prisons where they’re placed.
It is also “hard to cognize of any public interest in the immediate cessation of their hormone therapy,” Lambert wrote, aside from a small sum of money the BOP may save by not handing out these drugs.
The plaintiffs were represented by two San Francisco law firms, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, as well as the Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, also known as GLAD Law.
The suit was filed against Acting Attorney General James R. McHenry III and Acting BOP Director William Lothrop.
The BOP did not immediately comment on the suit.
“We’re thrilled with the decision,” one of the plaintiff’s San Francisco attorneys, Kara Janssen, told KTVU on Wednesday. “This protects our clients and ensures they won’t have to go to a male prison where they could be assaulted. This protects their safety.”
