A Ninth Circuit panel has vacated a class-wide preliminary injunction requiring Oregon to presumptively house biological males who identify as female in its women’s prisons.
The district court found Oregon officials applied a “default presumption” placing transgender women in men’s prisons, based mainly on a 90 percent housing rate. The panel called that finding clearly erroneous. Uncontested evidence showed the department conducts individualized reviews for every transgender inmate in its custody, and only 26 of 117 had ever requested transfer to the women’s prison. The panel also found the certified class of “all current and future transgender women” improper for similar reasons, since housing decisions and harm varied by inmate rather than reflecting a uniform policy.
Department of Justice data formed the basis for the district court’s finding of a substantial risk of harm, but the panel found it stale and mismatched: it covered scattered years between 2007 and 2012, not the relevant period, and reflected nationwide, not Oregon, conditions.
With the record supporting neither a presumption nor deliberate indifference, the panel vacated the preliminary injunction and ordered the class decertified. The equities also favored the state: the named plaintiff’s own record includes a violent sex offense against a woman. The case returns to the district court for further proceedings.
The ruling affirms that individualized safety and housing decisions in state prisons remain within officials’ discretion, not a categorical presumption imposed by the courts.
Read Opinion Here: 6:25-cv-01726-CL