The law violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, judge rules

December 3, 2025 – A federal judge permanently enjoined a portion of a Georgia law banning gender dysphoria treatment in prison, finding that its blanket ban on hormone therapy violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. A temporary injunction ordered by the judge in September was set to expire, compelling this new decision, which stems from a class action lawsuit filed by trans people incarcerated in Georgia. 

Signed by Governor Kemp in May and implemented by the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and its healthcare provider Centurion of Georgia, LLC starting in July 2025, SB185 targets hormone therapy and other forms of gender dysphoria care that doctors, judges, and GDC itself have deemed medically necessary. The law not only prohibits the state from spending money on gender dysphoria care in prison, it also bans incarcerated people from paying for it themselves. Meanwhile, the law allows people who are not trans to receive the very same treatments, such as hormone therapy, that it denies trans people. 

In today’s ruling, Judge Victoria M. Calvert wrote, “the Court requires healthcare decisions for prisoners to be made dispassionately, by physicians, based on individual determinations of medical need, and for reasons beyond the fact that the prisoners are prisoners.”

The five plaintiffs, two men and three women, were all diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have been prescribed or are seeking evaluations for hormone therapy treatment. Represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and lawyers from Bondurant, they brought the class action lawsuit on behalf of the more than three hundred incarcerated trans people who face catastrophic consequences from the defendants’ enforcement of 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. 

“Today’s decision is a powerful reminder that the Constitution applies to everyone, including trans people in prison. Trans people have the same right to medically necessary healthcare under the Eighth Amendment as anyone else behind bars,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Chinyere Ezie.

Because of lawsuits brought by former Center for Constitutional Rights client Ashley Diamond, GDC had previously acknowledged for more than a decade that trans people with gender dysphoria in its custody are entitled to “constitutionally appropriate” medical care. Two of the defendants, GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver and Assistant Commissioner Randy Sauls, had adopted and implemented the previous standards of care and related policies, while two other defendants, GDC Statewide Medical Director Marlah Mardis and Centurion of Georgia, LLC, were responsible for providing treatments to incarcerated trans people based on those standards and policies. 

Amanda Kay Seals, Partner at Bondurant, said “Bondurant is proud to stand with our clients and our colleagues at the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Constitution’s protections reach within the gates of our prisons, and 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.” 

“We are ecstatic that the court, once again, has validated the experiences of our clients, and hundreds of other impacted transgender people in GDC custody, and that they will continue to get the much needed medical care that they are entitled to as a matter of law, solid public policy, and well-established medicine,” said Emily Early, Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ Southern Regional Office.

For more information, see the case page.