February, 07 2011, 11:19am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Robyn Shepherd, ACLU, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org
Larry Dupuis, ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, (414) 272-4032, ext. 12; ldupuis@aclu-wi.org
Erik Roldan, Lambda Legal, (312) 663-4413 or (312) 545-8140; eroldan@lambdalegal.org
Federal Court Hears Arguments in Case Defending Transgender People's Right to Access Medical Treatment in Prison
ACLU and Lambda Legal Argue That Doctors, Not Legislators, Should Determine Medical Treatment
CHICAGO
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments
today in a case defending the right of transgender people to receive
medical care while they are incarcerated. Under Wisconsin law, prison
doctors are prohibited from prescribing hormone treatment to transgender
inmates. The law is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties
Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal.
"The district
court correctly struck down a discriminatory law that denied transgender
people, and no one else, crucial care for a serious medical condition,"
said John Knight, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Project. "We hope that the court of appeals
affirms this ruling and recognizes that medical treatment decisions must
be based on medical, rather than political, justifications."
In 2005, the state
of Wisconsin passed a law that barred prison doctors from providing
transgender inmates medically necessary hormone therapy or sex
reassignment surgery while in state custody. The ACLU, the ACLU of
Wisconsin and Lambda Legal sued the state on behalf of transgender
inmates, some of whom had been receiving hormone treatment in Wisconsin
prisons for years. An injunction was granted to continue hormone
treatment until a ruling was made. In April 2010, after a full trial, a
federal district court struck down the so-called "Inmate Sex Change
Prevention Act."
"The trial court
ruled that it is cruel and unusual punishment to deny medical treatment
to transgender prisoners for a serious medical need," said Dru
Levasseur, Lambda Legal's Transgender Rights attorney. "We hope this
court will affirm the principle that is so important to all of us -
doctors, and not legislators, should decide what medical treatment is
critical for their patients."
The clients in
this case were represented by Knight of the ACLU LGBT Project, Levasseur
of Lambda Legal, Larry Dupuis of the ACLU of Wisconsin, Erik Guenther
of Hurley, Burish & Stanton and Jonathan Baum and Alyx Pattison of
the Chicago firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.
More information on this case, Fields v. Smith, can be found on the American Civil Liberties Union case profile page at: www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights_hiv-aids/sundstrom-v-frank-case-profile or on Lambda Legal's case page at: www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/fields-v-smith.html
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
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As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
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"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
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From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
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Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
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