sex reassignment surgery

8th Circuit Greenlights Anti-Trans Discrimination by Catholic Health Care Providers and Employers

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on December 9 upholding an injunction barring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from enforcing against Catholic institutions a rule that forbids health care providers from denying gender-affirming care to transgender individuals and that requires employers to cover gender-affirming care in their employee benefit plans.

 

The ruling upheld an injunction … <Read More>

Trump Alumni Group Engineers Challenge to Bostock Application Outside of Title VII

Shortly after the end of Donald Trump’s Administration, a group of his top officials formed a new organization intended to challenge attempts by the Biden Administration to change Trump’s policies.  With Stephen Miller, White House counselor and the evil genius behind many of Trump’s policies, as its president and board chair, America First Legal Foundation boasts as board members former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and former Director of … <Read More>

5th Circuit Panel Rules Denial of Gender Confirmation Surgery for Transgender Inmate Does Not Violate 8th Amendment

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled by a vote of 2-1 on March 29 that the state of Texas did not violate the 8th Amendment right against cruel or unusual punishment by denying gender confirmation surgery to transgender inmate Vanessa Lynn Gibson.  Gibson v. Collier, 2019 WL 1417271, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 9397.  The dissent argued that the substantive legal question was not properly … <Read More>

Federal Judge Refuses to Dismiss Michigan Transgender ID Case

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a claim by six transgender Michiganders that a state policy governing changes of sex designation on driver’s licenses and personal identification cards violates their constitutional privacy rights.  The November 16 ruling in Love v. Johnson, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154338, 2015 WL 7180471 (E.D. Mich), by Senior U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds, finds that transgender people have a fundamental right of privacy under the Due Process Clause … <Read More>

Federal Court Allows Transgender Challenge to NY Medicaid Regulations to Continue

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan  denied most of New York State’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging various limitations in the state’s Medicaid program relating to treatment for gender dysphoria.   Judge Rakoff did not immediately issue a written opinion supporting his June 26 ruling, indicating that one would be issued later.  The case is Cruz v. Zucker, No. 14-CV-4456 (JSR)(GWG) (S.D.N.Y., June 26, 2015).

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program to provide health … <Read More>

9th Circuit Revives Transgender Inmate’s Suit for Sex Reassignment Surgery

The U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision was not the only case of consequence for LGBT rights decided on June 26, 2015.  On the opposite coast, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circui, in San Francisco unanimously revived a California inmate’s lawsuit seeking sex reassignment surgery, which had been dismissed at the screening stage by Chief Judge Ralph R. Beistline of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District … <Read More>

1st Circuit Affirms Order for Sex Reassignment Surgery for Life Inmate

A three-judge panel of the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit voted 2-1 to affirm the district court’s decision that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the 8th Amendment when it refused to provide sex-reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek, who is serving a life-sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of her wife. The ruling may not conclude the action, since the state’s staunch opposition to providing the surgery … <Read More>

Historic Intersex/DSD Lawsuit Survives Dismissal Motion

What may turn into the first major United States legal precedent on the constitutional due process rights of persons born with “disorder of sexual development” (DSD) has survived an initial hurdle of a motion to dismiss.  In an as-yet unpublished written opinion issued on August 29 (and brought to my attention by an op-ed by Riki Wilchins posted on the Advocate.com website today, September 18), U.S. District Judge David C. Norton (D. South Carolina) denied … <Read More>

4th Circuit Revives Transgender Inmates Suit for Sex Reassignment Surgery

A unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, ruled on January 28 that District Judge James C. Turk (Western District of Virginia) should not have dismissed an 8th Amendment complaint by Ophelia Azriel De’lonta, a Virginia state inmate who has been denied gender reassignment surgery by the Virginia Department of Corrections. The ruling may be the first by a federal appellate court to hold that an … <Read More>