Court declines Idaho bid to overturn transgender inmate case
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the state of Idaho’s bid to overturn a case involving a transgender inmate who sued state officials to obtain sex reassignment surgery.
The Court had ruled 7-2 in May that it would not block a lower court’s ruling requiring Idaho to pay for Adree Edmo’s surgery, Boise State Public Radio reported.
Edmo received her surgery in June and was transferred to a women’s prison shortly thereafter, becoming the first transgender inmate in the country to do so through a court order, KBSX-FM reported.
State officials have spent over $450,000 of taxpayer money as of October to fight this case in court.
“The taxpayers of Idaho should not have to pay for a procedure that is not medically necessary,” Gov. Brad Little said in a statement. “From the start, this appeal was about defending taxpayers and I will continue to do so.”
Under consideration was whether the state Department of Correction violated Edmo’s constitutional rights shielding her from cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers with the state and those representing Edmo also debated whether the surgery was “medically necessary.”
Edmo was diagnosed with gender dysphoria soon after she was sentenced to prison in 2012 for the sexual abuse of a child under 16.
Edmo was later permitted to start hormone therapy, but was kept in a men’s prison and denied sex reassignment surgery. Her lawyers argued that the
denial became so unbearable that she attempted twice to castrate herself.
She is scheduled to be released from prison in July 2021.
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