U.S. District Judge George O’Toole, who Bill Clinton appointed, has blocked the transfer of a “transgender” biological male from a women’s prison to a male facility.
The inmate, identified under the pseudonym “Maria Moe,” filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order, which removed men from women’s prisons and stopped the facilities from providing “any medical procedure, treatment, or drug” for “conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
The lawsuit claimed the order infringes on his “due process rights” under the Fifth Amendment and is tantamount to “cruel and unusual punishment,” which is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
The Hill reports:
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued the temporary restraining order Sunday while the case was sealed. At a hearing in Boston on Thursday, O’Toole confirmed from the bench that the inmate, identified in court filings by the pseudonym Maria Moe, is back in general population after prison officials moved her to a “special housing unit” and receiving her hormone therapy, her lawyers said.
O’Toole, an appointee of former President Clinton, ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) not to change from that position until he decides whether to issue a longer injunction.
Reuters obtained and reported on the lawsuit before it was placed under seal.
The lawsuit claims:
Consistent with this standard of care, Maria Moe has lived as a woman and has taken hormones continuously since she was a teenager. During her term of incarceration, she has always been treated as a woman by federal correctional officials and her peers. She has never been housed in a men’s facility and has never stopped taking hormones. Until January 23, 2025, publicly available records from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) identified her sex as “female.” On January 25, the same records classified her as “male” because of the Executive Order.
The complaint also states that Moe was placed in solitary to prepare to be moved to a men’s prison just one day after the order was issued on inauguration day.
“BOP officials informed her that because of the Order, she was being transferred to a men’s facility. Maria Moe remains in the SHU pending transfer. She has not been permitted to have contact with others for at least four days,” the suit alleges.
‘Transgender’ Inmate Sues Trump Administration Over Order Removing Men from Women’s Prisons
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