Can we get men out of women’s prisons? WoLF files amicus brief in Jane Doe v. Pamela Bondi.

In January, President Trump issued Executive Order #14168 Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government. WoLF wrote about the executive order here: ”Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government”

The EO required the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to remove men who said they are ‘transgender’ from women’s prisons and rehouse them in men’s facilities.

Preliminary injunction orders were filed by GLAD Law and National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR)  in three separate lawsuits: Moe v. Trump, Doe v. Bondi, and Jones v. Bondi to stop their male clients currently housed in federal women’s prisons from being transferred to men’s facilities and ensuring their continued access to ‘transgender’ treatments.

The Trump Administration appealed these preliminary injunctions to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the three cases have been consolidated for ruling on this appeal, to be heard on Friday at 9:30 AM EST.

The case is attracting many amicus briefs (friends of the court):

From Indiana and Idaho’s amicus brief in support of the executive order: 

With sign ons from the following states: 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, Arizona.

“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. 

As sovereigns who have long regulated prisons and medicine to protect health and safety, amici States have an interest in protecting their authority. They urge the Court to reverse the injunction preventing the government from moving plaintiffs (males identifying as transgender) to male housing.”

The following states filed an amici brief supporting the appeal, and opposing the executive order:
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the States of California, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Delaware, Minnesota, Oregon, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia 

Organizations filing amicus briefs in support of the appellants: Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, Advocates for Transgender Equality Education Fund, the Transgender Law Center, and the Center for Constitutional Rights 

WoLF is the only feminist organization to submit a brief supporting the rights of incarcerated women to be free of being housed with males. 

There’s an incredible story as to how we learned about the upcoming combined appeal! The lawsuits to injunct the executive order all featured nameless plaintiffs and unknown penal institutions. There were loads of cases filed titled Doe vs. Bondi. Most were related to immigration and student visas. That made it really hard for the Legal Team at WoLF to locate the cases.

We work with incarcerated women to defend their rights, and one of these women alerted us the case was coming up.

She heard from one of the male inmates in her unit who is a plaintiff in this case. She then alerted us, and our feminist attorneys rushed to file our amicus brief, though we are past the deadline. This required WoLF to file a motion to file a late amicus brief along with our brief. We had to fight for the right to fight in court for women’s rights.

Women’s voices must be heard on the barbaric practice of male inmates in women’s prisons!

WoLF made this argument in our motion to file, and our brief will stand alone as the only argument made by women, on behalf of women.

You can read our brief here.

As feminists, it’s our fervent hope that the D.C. Appeals Court will rule that men cannot be placed in women’s prisons.

We will never quit fighting for the rights of incarcerated women who have nowhere to go, forced to live with men in their prison!