Attorney General Alan Wilson opposes U.S. Supreme Court case on transgender jail inmate’s housing demand

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is opposing a transgender inmate’s demand to be housed based on gender identity instead of biological sex. Attorney General Wilson joined 23 other states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief Monday with the Supreme Court of the United States, which is considering whether to hear the case.

“This is an important constitutional question, but it’s also a serious matter of safety and common sense. Regardless of how someone identifies, putting a biological man in a women’s jail, or a biological woman in a men’s jail, would be dangerous for inmates and correctional officers,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Separating inmates by biological sex, as has been done for centuries, is constitutional because all similarly situated inmates are treated alike, men housed with men and women housed with women.”

The Supreme Court is considering whether to hear a case from the El Paso County jail in Colorado. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that it’s a violation of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause to house transgender-identifying inmates based on their biological sex.

The attorneys general write in their brief, “common sense sex-based inmate housing policies are now effectively unconstitutional in the Tenth Circuit. Correctional facilities in largely rural states will thus be placed in an untenable position of elevating transgender-identifying inmates’ preferences over the need to maintain safety and order and protect the rights of guards and other inmates.”

The attorneys general argue, “the potential danger is particularly acute for women, as ‘scientific studies indicate that transgender-identifying females, even those who have undergone testosterone suppression to lower their testosterone levels to within that of an average biological female, retain most of the puberty-related advantages of muscle mass and strength seen in biological males.’”

Joining Attorney General Wilson in the brief are the attorneys general of Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, and the Arizona Legislature.

You can read the brief here.