Judge weighs bid to block or reverse transfers of transgender inmates into a segregated prison unit

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has violated a court order by transferring several incarcerated transgender women to a segregated prison unit, an attorney for the inmates argued on Wednesday in urging a federal judge to enforce the order.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., didn't rule from the bench on the inmates' request to return them to general population at women's prisons and block more transfers into the segregated unit. But the judge expressed concern that the transfers violate a preliminary injunction that he issued last month.

“You're violating my order, aren't you?” Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Jared Littman.

“No, your honor,” Littman said. “Based on the words of your order, there was no violation.”

Lamberth, however, said it appears that the government has violated his previous order “on its face” by segregating the plaintiffs and depriving them of “all of their privileges" from when they were housed in women's facilities.

Ten transgender women are currently segregated in the same unit at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Eight of them are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging an executive order that President Donald Trump signed last year, directing the federal Bureau of Prisons to house inmates based on their biological sex and to halt gender-affirming care.

Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled on June 7 that officials must house the lawsuit's plaintiffs in women’s prisons or women’s halfway houses. The judge enjoined prison officials from enforcing part of Trump's executive order.

Plaintiffs' attorney Alexander Shalom argued that housing the plaintiffs in a segregated unit violates their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

“This is a backdoor attempt to implement the executive order,” Shalom told the judge. “The conditions are not in any way comparable to a women's facility.”

Shalom said the transfers have exacerbated plaintiffs' gender dysphoria, which is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.

“Defendants minimize this harm, but they can't deny it's occurring,” he said.

Government attorneys argue that the transfers don't violate the injunction because the judge didn't require the plaintiffs to be housed alongside cisgender female inmates or share common spaces with them. They also claim it's premature for the plaintiffs to challenge the transfers in court before utilizing the prison system's administrative complaint process.

“The plaintiffs don't get to jump right into court and air their grievances,” Littman said.