Over two dozen Republican attorneys general are defending President Donald Trump’s moves to keep women from being housed alongside transgender-identifying men in federal prisons.
Led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a group of 26 states filed an amicus brief on Friday in support of Trump’s executive order requiring prisoners to be housed by sex and halting funds for transgender procedures for prisoners. Trump’s actions to rid prisons of gender ideology currently sit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after being blocked by lower federal courts.
“Truth matters — and it’s under attack in our culture today,” Labrador told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “We’re standing up for biological reality, lawful executive authority, and the dignity and safety of women. If government policy or court rulings deny basic truth, it threatens both public trust and the rights of individuals.”
In February, a federal judge blocked the Trump’s directive to move transgender-identifying male prisoners out of a female prison, arguing that it violates the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Two other judges have also blocked the order, including provisions ending funding of transgender procedures for prisoners.
Led by Labrador and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the Republican attorneys general argued Friday that Trump’s actions to keep men out of women’s prisons are not bound by the Eighth Amendment.
“The federal government is charged with preserving the safety of all prisoners in its care, and it has determined that placing transgender-identifying male prisoners in female housing intolerably jeopardizes female prisoners’ well-being,” they wrote in their legal brief. “So far as the Eighth Amendment is concerned, the federal government is free to decide, as it has, that the best and safest solution is to house trans-identifying male prisoners with non-violent male offenders.”
The Republican officials also noted that there is a great danger that could be posed to women who are forced to shower and bunk alongside males.
“Housing transgender-identifying males with female prisoners presents its own set of risks. Those risks inure to the harm of female inmates, who (1) have their rights to privacy and dignity compromised by having to sleep and shower with men, (2) are exposed to elevated possibilities of violence or sexual assault, and (3) will be pressured or coerced into using speech reflecting a belief that conflicts with biological reality,” they wrote.
RELATED: Despite Trump Orders, Juvenile Prisons Still Have To House ‘Trans’ Men With Young Girls
They also argue that the Trump administration should be allowed to deny transgender procedures to prisoners because of the well-documented risks of gender medical interventions.
“Politically accountable policy makers are better positioned and constitutionally empowered to decide if, when, and how those treatments should be administered, and the need for deference to the politically accountable branches is particularly high in light of the medical uncertainty regarding the treatments’ efficacy,” they wrote.
Labrador at the Supreme Court/ Credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.
The brief was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Risks to women being housed alongside males are not abstract and are currently the subject of multiple lawsuits across the country. A California man named Tremaine Carrol faces multiple rape charges after he was housed in a woman’s facility. In Washington, former prisoner Mozzy Clark has sued the state saying it subjected her to multiple sexual assaults because they housed a man in her cell.
The issue is not isolated to the adult prisons as Obama-era regulations states could be required to house boys in all-girl youth prisons as well. As The Daily Wire previously reported, states must consider housing a juvenile male who identifies as a female at a women’s facility on a case by case basis or risk the loss of federal funding.
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Over two dozen Republican attorneys general are defending President Donald Trump’s moves to keep women from being housed alongside transgender-identifying men in federal prisons.
Led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a group of 26 states filed an amicus brief on Friday in support of Trump’s executive order requiring prisoners to be housed by sex and halting funds for transgender procedures for prisoners. Trump’s actions to rid prisons of gender ideology currently sit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after being blocked by lower federal courts.
“Truth matters — and it’s under attack in our culture today,” Labrador told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “We’re standing up for biological reality, lawful executive authority, and the dignity and safety of women. If government policy or court rulings deny basic truth, it threatens both public trust and the rights of individuals.”
In February, a federal judge blocked the Trump’s directive to move transgender-identifying male prisoners out of a female prison, arguing that it violates the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Two other judges have also blocked the order, including provisions ending funding of transgender procedures for prisoners.
Led by Labrador and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the Republican attorneys general argued Friday that Trump’s actions to keep men out of women’s prisons are not bound by the Eighth Amendment.
“The federal government is charged with preserving the safety of all prisoners in its care, and it has determined that placing transgender-identifying male prisoners in female housing intolerably jeopardizes female prisoners’ well-being,” they wrote in their legal brief. “So far as the Eighth Amendment is concerned, the federal government is free to decide, as it has, that the best and safest solution is to house trans-identifying male prisoners with non-violent male offenders.”
The Republican officials also noted that there is a great danger that could be posed to women who are forced to shower and bunk alongside males.
“Housing transgender-identifying males with female prisoners presents its own set of risks. Those risks inure to the harm of female inmates, who (1) have their rights to privacy and dignity compromised by having to sleep and shower with men, (2) are exposed to elevated possibilities of violence or sexual assault, and (3) will be pressured or coerced into using speech reflecting a belief that conflicts with biological reality,” they wrote.
RELATED: Despite Trump Orders, Juvenile Prisons Still Have To House ‘Trans’ Men With Young Girls
They also argue that the Trump administration should be allowed to deny transgender procedures to prisoners because of the well-documented risks of gender medical interventions.
“Politically accountable policy makers are better positioned and constitutionally empowered to decide if, when, and how those treatments should be administered, and the need for deference to the politically accountable branches is particularly high in light of the medical uncertainty regarding the treatments’ efficacy,” they wrote.
Labrador at the Supreme Court/ Credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.
The brief was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Risks to women being housed alongside males are not abstract and are currently the subject of multiple lawsuits across the country. A California man named Tremaine Carrol faces multiple rape charges after he was housed in a woman’s facility. In Washington, former prisoner Mozzy Clark has sued the state saying it subjected her to multiple sexual assaults because they housed a man in her cell.
The issue is not isolated to the adult prisons as Obama-era regulations states could be required to house boys in all-girl youth prisons as well. As The Daily Wire previously reported, states must consider housing a juvenile male who identifies as a female at a women’s facility on a case by case basis or risk the loss of federal funding.
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