24 states back challenge to transgender inmate surgery ruling with nationwide stakes
FIRST ON FOX: Idaho and Indiana filed an amicus brief challenging a federal ruling requiring Alaska to provide sex reassignment surgery for prison inmates in a case that could reshape...
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: Idaho and Indiana filed an amicus brief challenging a federal ruling requiring Alaska to provide sex reassignment surgery for prison inmates in a case that could reshape policy nationwide. Alaska is appealing the decision to the Ninth Circuit, seeking to overturn a ruling that found denying sex reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate violated the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Twenty-four states now warn that if upheld, the judge's ruling could force prisons across the country to provide transgender medical procedures. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said that if the lower judge's ruling is upheld, it could create a dangerous "precedent." "A federal court ordered Alaska to refer a prisoner for sex-change surgery consultation, which threatens to set a precedent that forces other states to provide these procedures using taxpayer dollars," Labrador said. "Idaho supports Alaska in defending state medical decisions against judicial overreach. The Eighth Amendment ensures basic medical care for prisoners, but it doesn't require states to provide experimental gender transition surgeries." IDAHO AG SAYS SUPREME COURT TRANSGENDER SPORTS CASE DEFIES 'COMMON SENSE' Magistrate Judge Matthew Scoble had argued that Alaska acted with "deliberate indifference" when prisoner Emalee Wagoner, who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, was barred from receiving surgery. However, Alaska Wagoner is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence for sexual abuse of minors. In a 32-page brief, Labrador, Idaho Solicitor General Michael Zarian, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Solicitor General James Barta rejected the magistrate judge's argument that the Alaska Department of Corrections is in violation of the Eighth Amendment because the requested medical procedure is not a "minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities," meaning it is unnecessary. This assertion is based on the fact the operation "is not available to free c…