A legal battle between the state of Idaho and a transgender inmate seeking to undergo gender- confirmation surgery may be headed to the nation’s highest court.
Gov. Brad Little announced Thursday that Idaho has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling requiring the state to pay for inmate Adree Edmo’s surgery. To deny Edmo sex reassignment surgery, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year, would constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which protects against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“The Ninth Circuit’s decision goes against the text and original meaning of the Eighth Amendment and contradicts more than four decades of Supreme Court precedent,” Little said in a statement Thursday. “The taxpayers of Idaho should not have to pay for a procedure that is not medically necessary.”