State law imperils health and well-being of hundreds, violates Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment

August 8, 2025, Atlanta, Georgia – Trans people incarcerated in Georgia today filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law banning people in custody from receiving medical treatment for their gender dysphoria. Signed by Governor Kemp in May and adopted by the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) last month, SB185 prohibits any state funds or resources for hormone therapy and other forms of gender dysphoria care that doctors, judges, and the GDC itself have deemed medically necessary. Indeed, federal courts have struck down laws similar to SB185 in other states as unconstitutional. 

Five trans plaintiffs – two men and three women – brought the suit on behalf of the nearly three hundred trans people incarcerated in Georgia who face potentially catastrophic consequences from the new law. Withdrawal of hormone therapy can cause severe medical and psychological problems, from cardiovascular complications to cognitive decline. Cutting off essential care also ensures the return of the conditions that necessitated care in the first place, including severe depression and anxiety, which can lead, in turn, to self-harm and suicide. The plaintiffs also filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to immediately restore hormone therapy that has been discontinued since the passage of the law.

“I'm bringing this lawsuit because trans people in GDC custody need an advocate, and I know there are people who will take their lives if this law is not blocked,” said plaintiff Isis Benjamin.

The law, more broadly, threatens the right of trans people to live with dignity and self-determination and demonstrates that its intent is blatant discrimination rather than any meaningful attempt to provide appropriate healthcare or manage prison costs. Emerging amid a raft of anti-trans bills in Georgia and other states and the Trump administration’s anti-trans policies, SB185 forces people in Georgia prisons to de-transition while allowing others who are not transgender to receive the very same treatment, such as hormone therapy, that it denies trans people. SB185 would also prohibit incarcerated trans people from paying for their own treatments.  

“We would never allow a state to decide that people in prison with diabetes should be cut off of insulin just because the state didn’t want to pay for it anymore,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Justice Fellow and Staff Attorney Celine Zhu. “So why would we allow Georgia to cut off medically required care for people with a similarly serious diagnosis of gender dysphoria? Lawmakers can’t be permitted to override the judgment of leading medical authorities and  prison doctors, and disregard constitutional protections, simply because it applies to the treatment of gender dysphoria. Then we’re just state-sanctioning prejudice, with irreversible and fatal consequences.”

For more than a decade prior to the passage of SB185, GDC acknowledged that people with gender dysphoria in custody are entitled to “constitutionally appropriate” medical care, including hormone therapy and grooming items to support social transition. All the plaintiffs in today’s case were diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have been prescribed or are seeking evaluations for treatment, including hormone therapy and surgery. One of the plaintiffs, a transwoman incarcerated in Phillips State Prison, has been receiving hormone therapy since 2019. The treatment has relieved her of depression so severe it caused her to try to commit suicide several times. On July 8, a prison psychologist told her that, due to SB185, she would no longer be able to receive treatment. Since then, her treatment has been completely terminated, despite being told she would receive gradually decreasing dosages prior to cessation. Plaintiffs receiving treatment have had their hormone therapy either tapered off or abruptly terminated.

Two of the defendants, GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver and Assistant Commissioner Randy Sauls, adopted and implemented the previous standards of care and related policies regarding the treatment of incarcerated people with gender dysphoria within GDC, and two other defendants, GDC Medical Director Marlah Mardis and Centurion Health, were responsible for providing treatments to incarcerated trans people based on those standards and policies. They are all well aware of the importance of such care and the illegality of denying it. In fact, GDC’s SB185 enforcement plan is modeled on Centurion’s plan for Idaho’s prisons, which a federal court has blocked as unconstitutional.

The State of Georgia has opened a period for public comment through September 3 on a proposed amended regulation to enforce SB185 and has set a hearing for final approval of the regulation on September 4, despite the fact that GDC has already begun implementing the law.

Filed on the plaintiffs’ behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights and lawyers from Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP, the lawsuit charges the defendants with “deliberate indifference” to the medical needs of people in their custody. It asks that the court enjoin the law and declare that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division.

Bondurant Partner Amanda Kay Seals said the firm “is proud to stand with the Center for Constitutional Rights and with our clients to protect the constitutional rights of those incarcerated in Georgia’s prisons.” Seals, joined on the case by Associate Matthew Sellers, added, “When a state violates the constitutional rights of those it incarcerates, it compromises its moral authority. Protecting the civil rights of those in prison protects us all.”  

For more information, see the case page.