Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to reverse a lower court’s decision allowing a convicted murderer in Indiana to receive taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery.
The brief challenges a district court ruling that granted Autumn Cordellioné, who is serving a 55-year prison sentence for the strangulation of an 11-month-old, the right to undergo sex reassignment surgery. The coalition argues that the procedure is not covered under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments, and that there is no medical consensus supporting the surgery as a necessary or effective treatment for gender dysphoria.
In the brief, the attorneys general contend that federal courts should be cautious in overriding state officials’ decisions regarding inmate medical care. The brief states that, under the Eighth Amendment, an inmate can only claim deliberate indifference to their medical needs if the treatment they receive is “blatantly inappropriate,” noting that the medical community is still debating the best way to treat gender dysphoria.
“Federal courts should be especially reticent to second-guess state officials’ decisions regarding the medical care inmates receive, given that the medical community is still debating the treatment of gender dysphoria,” the brief reads.
The coalition also argues that the district court’s decision to grant Cordellioné a preliminary injunction was a mistake, as it granted permanent relief by approving an irreversible procedure. The court’s reliance on incomplete evidence from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care is also criticized.
The attorneys general assert that WPATH’s standards are politically motivated and influenced by the Biden administration, lacking sufficient evidence to justify the surgery. They also argue that the Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner was not given enough time to conduct discovery to examine the credibility of these standards.
“The WPATH Standards are not ‘credible and reliable’, and should not be relied on to constitutionalize a standard of care under the Eighth Amendment,” the brief concludes.
The amicus brief is led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and supported by attorneys general from 24 states, including Montana, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The coalition’s filing continues the ongoing legal battle over the rights of incarcerated individuals and the use of taxpayer funds for medical procedures. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to hear the case in the coming months.
