Supreme Court Vacates Transgender Inmate Ruling, Sends Case Back to Tenth Circuit
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, November 9, granted certiorari in Griffith v. El Paso County, vacated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit's ruling in the case, and remanded it for further consideration in light of two of the justices' recent decisions on transgender issues. The case stems from transgender woman Darlene Griffith's claim that her civil rights were violated at the El Paso County Jail in Colorado while she was awaiting trial in 2020.
Entry No. 25-442 on the court's order list, captioned Roybal, Sheriff, et al. v. Griffith, states: the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the Tenth Circuit for further consideration in light of West Virginia v. B. P. J., 609 U.S. 958 (2026), and United States v. Skrmetti, 605 U.S. 495 (2025). No justice noted a dissent from the entry.
Griffith has been living openly as a woman for more than 20 years. She alleges that while held pretrial at the El Paso County Jail in 2020, she was denied a request to be housed in a female unit, was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a male inmate, and was frequently searched by male deputies. In February 2025, the Denver-based Tenth Circuit allowed some of her allegations to proceed, saying they had passed the low bar for surviving a motion to dismiss, while emphasizing that it was not yet weighing whether the jail's policy of housing inmates based on biological sex is unconstitutional.
The county sheriff appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that prison administrators face inconsistent mandates on how to classify and house transgender inmates while maintaining safety and security. The Justice Department urged the justices to send the case back because the Tenth Circuit's 2025 ruling came before the Supreme Court's two recent transgender decisions, which upheld a state ban on gender-affirming care for minors and state bans on transgender athletes competing on female teams.
On remand, the Tenth Circuit will reanalyze Griffith's equal protection and related claims under those two precedents. Monday's disposition does not finally decide whether her claims succeed; the underlying litigation continues in the lower courts.
(Source: U.S. Supreme Court)
Source: U.S. Supreme Court
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