Court blocked trans woman's prison transfer, as second lawsuit filed for other trans women

"The courts remain an important backstop," one of the women's lawyers tells Law Dork. Both lawsuits are backed by two LGBTQ legal organizations.

There are now multiple lawsuits challenging provisions in President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender January 20 executive order defining “sex” that would force transgender women in prison to be housed in men’s facilities and result in the loss of transgender-related medical care.

The first of those, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, resulted in an order late on January 26 prohibiting the Bureau of Prisons from transferring Maria Moe (a pseudonym) from the women’s facility where she has been to a men’s facility, according to Moe’s lawyers. The case was fully sealed at that point, however, with nothing available on the public docket.

“The courts remain an important backstop,” Jennifer Levi, one of the woman’s lawyers, told Law Dork. “This is a great first step in the case.”

Law Dork reported on that case early January 27, based on the complaint, which had been retrieved and made publicly available before the case was sealed, but no further information about the case was public at the time.

On Thursday, a hearing was held in that case. The court confirmed at the hearing that Moe is back in the general population at the women’s facility — she had been placed in solitary confinement following Trump’s order — and receiving her medical care, according to Jennifer Levi, Moe’s lawyer with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). Levi added that U.S. District Judge George O’Toole, a Clinton appointee, also ordered BOP not to change from that position before he rules on their requests. The case was unsealed, Levi said, although not all of the documents in the case are yet publicly available.

Reuters first reported the news of O’Toole’s January 26 order on Thursday evening.

Calling Trump’s order “contrary to the health and safety of incarcerated people,” Levi told Law Dork that it “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.“

Also on Thursday, GLAD and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), which had joined with a private firm to file Moe’s case, filed a second case on behalf of three other transgender women in federal facilities. This case was filed in federal court in D.C. In addition to GLAD and NCLR, these women are also represented by Eve Hill from Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP and lawyers with Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP.

“They bring this action to challenge their imminent transfer from the women’s correctional facilities where they are currently housed to men’s correctional facilities, and the denial of the medical care necessary to treat their gender dysphoria,” the lawyers wrote in asking the court to file their request for a temporary restraining order under seal.

Since these cases are being filed under seal, with pseudonyms, and with redactions, I thought it important to include these paragraphs where the women’s lawyers in the D.C. litigation explain why they are seeking that:

The sealed motion for a temporary restraining order was also filed Thursday.