A preliminary injunction has been issued by a federal judge to prevent the Trump administration from transferring three transgender women to all-male prisons. The judge has reached the conclusion that the inmates would be at a “substantially elevated risk” of physical and sexual violence, and that the transfer would make their mental health conditions even worse.
In a federal action that involves the inmate plaintiffs, the preliminary injunction was issued on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
Lamberth stated that it would most certainly result in significant injury if the hormone therapy medication that was provided to the detainees was not administered.
According to what he wrote, “It is important to note that the defendants did not dispute those facts substantially.” “Instead, the defendants pointed to hypothetical actions that the Bureau of Prisons might take in order to lessen the severity of those damages and, as a result, alleviate the concerns that the Court had regarding the Eighth Amendment. Those hypothetical measures were not adequate to refute the plaintiffs’ proof of harm, which was essentially uncontroverted.
He went on to say that because a temporary restraining order had been imposed in the case, the court had not received any additional information regarding the actions that the government intended to take or would take in the event that the plaintiffs were to be relocated and denied access to their prescribed medications.
In response to an executive order that was signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, the lawsuit is being filed. The executive order purports to protect women from “gender ideology extremism” and restore “biological truth” by, among other things, transferring transgender women to men’s lockups and preventing inmates from receiving medical care for gender dysphoria.
CNN reported that on February 4, the counsel for the plaintiffs, Jennifer Levi, informed the judge that the transfer order constitutes sex-based discrimination and breaches their prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. This was said in the context of the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order.
It was observed by the government that there are currently just 16 transgender women who are male to female who are housed in women’s lockup facilities, whereas there are 1,490 transgender women who are housed in men’s facilities. It has been stated in the past that
The temporary restraining order that Lamberth was granted is the most recent setback for the anti-transgender policies that the Trump administration has implemented. Another pseudonymous transgender woman inmate in Massachusetts was successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order in the same manner as the one she had previously gotten. Additionally, a legal dispute is taking on regarding the order issued by the Trump administration that prohibits transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces.
