RBGG’s Sandy Rosen provided commentary to the Daily Journal in a front page story on June 29, 2015, Transgender inmate’s civil rights suit revived. The DJ article reported on a Ninth Circuit ruling that reversed a lower court decision and revived a civil rights suit by a transgender inmate, and in doing so noted that deliberate indifference to a prisoner’s serious medical needs is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
According to Sandy, “There’s huge cause to rejoice. Marriage equality and transgender progress on the same day – we are twice blessed.” A full copy of the article is available here.
As reported in an earlier post, RBGG has filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit for Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) on behalf of a transgender prisoner in Norsworthy v. Beard. Ms. Norsworthy is a transgender woman held in a California men’s prison. The district court concluded that the denial of necessary medical care to Ms. Norsworthy violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It issued a preliminary injunction requiring the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to provide Ms. Norsworthy with adequate medical care, including sex reassignment surgery. CDCR appealed the preliminary injunction to the Ninth Circuit. The RBGG team which was representing BALIF pro bono included Sandy and Aaron Fischer, summer associate Abbye Klamann, and paralegal clerk Charlotte Landes. A copy of the brief is available here.