Idaho governor appeals to Supreme Court to stop trans inmate's surgery [View all]
Source: NBC News
A legal battle between the state of Idaho and a transgender inmate seeking to undergo gender- confirmation surgery may be headed to the nation’s highest court.
Gov. Brad Little announced Thursday that Idaho has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling requiring the state to pay for inmate Adree Edmo’s surgery. To deny Edmo sex reassignment surgery, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year, would constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which protects against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“The Ninth Circuit’s decision goes against the text and original meaning of the Eighth Amendment and contradicts more than four decades of Supreme Court precedent,” Little said in a statement Thursday. “The taxpayers of Idaho should not have to pay for a procedure that is not medically necessary.”
Edmo’s lawyers, however, have repeatedly asserted that the surgery is a medical necessity, a view upheld by the courts. In the eight years since her conviction, she has attempted to self-castrate twice due to her gender dysphoria, which she was first diagnosed with in prison, according to court documents. Gender dysphoria, according to the American Psychiatric Association, “involves a conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify.”
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/idaho-governor-appeals-supreme-court-stop-trans-inmate-s-surgery-n1203281
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