The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court decision that found transgender inmates could demand to be placed with inmates that match their gender identity, and could refuse to be searched by guards who do not match that identity.
The justices, in a brief order, sent the case back to the circuit court for more argument, while pointing to two recent high-court cases that gave states leeway to limit special treatment for transgender residents in sports and medical care contexts.
The case arose out of Colorado, where transgender inmate Darlene Griffith had begun taking hormonal treatments and had developed breasts but still had male genitalia.
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During a strip search at intake for pretrial detention in 2020, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office had a female guard perform a check above the waist, including the breasts, and a male guard check below the waist, including the penis and body cavity.
Griffith also demanded to be housed with female inmates and asked for panties, a sports bra and lipstick.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that assigning Griffith to a male prison violated the Constitution, and absent an emergency, male officers could not be involved in a strip search of an inmate who identifies as female.
“Such a rule is constitutionally absurd,” lawyers for the sheriff’s office told the high court in asking the justices to take the case. “And it disregards administrative expertise, creates dignity and safety concerns, and ignores the operational realities of running detention facilities like county jails.”
The justices’ order Monday vacates the 10th Circuit ruling and remands the case to the lower court.
They told the lower judges to reconsider their previous ruling by taking into account June’s decision upholding state laws that banned transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports leagues, and last year’s decision upholding a state law restricting drug treatments and surgeries intended to assist in juveniles’ gender transitions.
In both of those cases, the justices recognized state interests in the restrictions, and rejected transgender advocates’ claims that the policies violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
Monday’s case is one of several lawsuits churning through the lower courts dealing with transgender prisoners.
The Trump administration has moved to limit the medical care and housing choices for transgender inmates in the federal system, and has drawn legal challenges.
The Supreme Court last month declined to halt lower court rulings that ordered the government to continue providing drug treatments to transgender prisoners.
The Trump Justice Department had weighed in on the side of the Colorado sheriff’s office in Monday’s case, comparing prisons to sports leagues, saying the ability to segregate by sex is important to safety.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer was particularly surprised by the strip search aspect of the appeals court’s ruling, saying a male inmate wouldn’t be allowed to dictate a preference for an inspection by a female guard.
Griffith said the male guard who performed the initial strip search was “extremely aggressive” in his search of her genitals and threatened her to keep quiet about it.
She also said at one point she was warned by a guard not to go shirtless, even though male inmates were allowed to be shirtless during exercises.
Her lawyers said Griffith was so distraught by the treatment that she attempted self-castration.
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