Criminal Justice

Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Southern California, the Transgender Law Center, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP filed a request to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend SB 132, a groundbreaking California law protecting incarcerated transgender people. Lambda Legal filed the request on behalf of the TGI Justice Project and four incarcerated transgender women.

Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Jesse Moore, urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a district court’s order that dismissed her complaint for failure to state a claim.

Lambda Legal represents Jason Yoakam, a transgender man incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) in Troy, Virginia. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) has denied a bilateral mastectomy, or chest surgery, for Jason on the basis that it is not medically necessary. VDOC has also denied requests that Mr. Yoakam receive mental health care for treatment of gender dysphoria from qualified mental health providers and other reasonable accommodations.

Lambda Legal and the University of Denver School of Law, Civil Rights Clinic filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Divinity Rios urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a district court’s order that dismissed her complaint despite controlling Supreme Court precedent in Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994) that established that prison officials have a constitutional duty to protect vulnerable incarcerated people from sexual violence.