A judge has temporarily halted federal prison officials from transferring a transgender woman to a men’s facility and denying her access to gender-affirming care following an executive order issued by former President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued the temporary restraining order Sunday while the case was sealed.
At a hearing in Boston on Thursday, O’Toole confirmed from the bench that the inmate, identified in court filings by the pseudonym Maria Moe, is back in the general population after prison officials moved her to a “special housing unit” and receiving her hormone therapy, her lawyers said.
O’Toole, an appointee of former President Clinton, ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) not to change from that position until he decides whether to issue a longer injunction.
Moe sued the Trump administration Sunday over an executive order declaring the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly preventing federal dollars from being spent on what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”
The order, which Trump signed on his first day back in office, explicitly prohibits women’s prisons and detention centres from housing transgender female inmates. It directs the incoming attorney general to ensure BOP complies with the order, including its prohibition on using federal funds to cover inmates’ gender-affirming care.
Her case was filed by lawyers at two LGBTQ rights groups including GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, which after the case was unsealed confirmed that O’Toole had on Sunday issued a temporary restraining order that will remain in place while he considers whether to issue a longer-lasting injunction.
The judge’s order requires prison officials to keep the inmate in the general population in a women’s facility and maintain her medical care, GLAD said. Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for the inmate at GLAD, called it a relief her client “is staying put for now.”
O’Toole is still considering whether to issue a longer prelimin
Moe’s attorneys had argued that transferring Moe, who began taking hormones as a teenager and has no violent disciplinary history, to a men’s facility would put her at “an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault.”
She has never been housed in a men’s facility, and until this month, her sex was listed as “female” on BOP records. Prison staff moved Moe to a “special housing unit” on Jan. 25 as they prepared to transfer her in compliance with Trump’s executive order, where she had no contact with others for at least four days, her lawyers said.
“The outcome of yesterday’s hearing was a huge relief to Maria Moe. She is back in the general population and receiving necessary medical care,” said Jennifer Levi, an attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, representing Moe with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a private law firm, Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
“Trump’s Gender Ideology Executive Order is contrary to the health and safety of incarcerated people, undermines prison security for all, and protects no one. It’s part of a seemingly sustained attack on transgender people’s inclusion in civic life.”
“The Courts remain an important backstop,” Levi said Friday in an emailed statement. “This is a great first step in the case.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston declined to comment.
Moe’s lawyers said that a day after Trump signed his order, officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons informed her she was being transferred from a women’s prison to a men’s facility, exposing her to an “extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence and sexual assault.”
Her lawyers said the Bureau of Prisons switched how it publicly identified her from “female” to “male” and had been poised to cut off the inmate’s access to hormones she has taken since she was a teenager to treat her gender dysphoria.
Her lawyers argued that Trump’s executive order discriminated based on sex in violation of the plaintiff’s due process rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
The lawyers argued that her impending transfer to a men’s prison also would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. (NBC News)
