[BOISE] – Attorney General Raúl Labrador leads a 24-state amicus brief with Attorney General Todd Rokita of Indiana, defending an executive order by President Trump setting new guidelines affecting federal inmates claiming to experience gender dysphoria. Federal and state authorities are operating well within the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution when they deny inmates’ requests for sex-change surgeries or hormone treatments, Attorney General Labrador told a U.S. district court in Washington D.C. this week in Kingdom v. Trump.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Transgender Law Center have sued the Trump Administration, claiming the executive order constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“Across the country, there are growing numbers of incarcerated inmates claiming gender dysphoria at rates that far eclipse occurrences in general society,” said Attorney General Labrador. “The Constitution leaves policy choices about best medical practices to policymakers, and there is nothing in the text or history of the Eighth Amendment which would allow prisoners to demand whatever medical intervention they desire.”
The executive order — titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” — prohibits inmates in federal prisons and immigration detention centers from obtaining taxpayer-funded sex-change procedures.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming joined the Idaho and Indiana-led amicus brief.
The brief in defense of President Trump’s executive order can be found here.