The 9th Circuit transgender prisons ruling set aside a preliminary injunction that would have transferred more than 100 transgender women convicted of felonies from Oregon men’s prisons to women’s facilities.
The decision, issued Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, reverses an April order that had directed the Oregon Department of Corrections to move the group of incarcerated people, according to court filings.
The case includes an unnamed plaintiff identified as J.F., whom Judge Eric Tung noted in the opinion had sexually assaulted a woman by inserting a plastic object a foot long into the woman’s vagina. Tung, a judge appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote that the lower court had “improperly disregarded the overwhelming contrary evidence presented by defendants in favor of baseless speculation.”
9th Circuit transgender prisons ruling draws language criticism
In the opinion, the word “transgender” appeared in quotation marks, and the court referred to transgender women as “male inmates who claim to be female.”
Jenny Hansson, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice, said by email that while the agency agreed with the case outcome, it “strongly disagree[d] with the court’s harmful language,” adding that the wording did not reflect the department’s brief or values.
The Supreme Court dismisses immigration case from October docket was one of several recent high-profile federal appellate decisions closely watched by legal observers.