"The complaint challenges a December 2025 DOJ memo instructing prison inspectors to ignore federal standards under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) intended to protect LGBTQ+ and intersex people in federal prisons, state prisons and jails, juvenile detention centers, and immigration detention centers."
"Those standards, finalized in 2012, recognized that incarcerated transgender people are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, and required correctional facilities to take individuals' gender identity and concerns for their own safety into account in housing decisions, rather than simply housing inmates according to anatomy or sex assigned at birth; provide opportunities to shower separately; and banned invasive searches to determine anatomy."
"The DOJ memo noted that the department was in the process of revising PREA standards in accordance with the president's January 2025 executive order denying any federal recognition of non-cisgender identities."
"But the NCLR lawsuit argues that the memo violated the Administrative Procedure Act in bypassing the formal rule-making process required to revise regulations under federal law. The president "ordered DOJ to go through the official process of amending those regulations to wipe out any mention of transgender people and to wipe out any protection for transgender people," NCLR legal director Shannon Minter told The Advocate."
A federal lawsuit seeks to invalidate efforts to strip incarcerated transgender individuals of sexual assault protections. The case was filed in federal court on behalf of a transgender woman held in a men’s prison, naming the Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The complaint targets a December 2025 DOJ memo instructing prison inspectors to ignore federal standards under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). PREA standards finalized in 2012 recognize heightened vulnerability to sexual violence for incarcerated transgender and intersex people and require facilities to consider gender identity and safety concerns in housing decisions. The standards also require separate shower opportunities and prohibit invasive searches intended to determine anatomy. The lawsuit argues the memo violates the Administrative Procedure Act by bypassing formal rule-making required to revise regulations.
#prea #transgender-rights #prison-sexual-assault-protections #administrative-procedure-act #department-of-justice
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