ACLU Moves to Intervene in Chandler v. CDCR

May 11

The ACLU and other groups represent four incarcerated men who want to be housed with women.

On May 9, 2022, the ACLU filed a Motion to Intervene in WoLF’s California lawsuit challenging SB 132, which places men in women’s prisons if they self-identify as women. The intervenors are claiming that the state of California is unable or unwilling to fully represent the interests of their clients, and that they need to join the case as parties in order to defend their position.

Along with Lambda Legal and the Transgender Law Center, the ACLU foundations of Northern California and Southern California are representing four incarcerated men along with the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (“TGIJP”).

This development comes after the state filed a Motion to Dismiss last month. In that motion, the state claimed it has discretion in implementing SB 132, further asserting that it is capable of doing so without making women unsafe or violating their constitutional rights. This is transparently false.

The ACLU objects to the state’s choice to slow the transfer of the more than 300 men who have sought transfer to women’s facilities, one-third of whom are sex offenders (though the ACLU denies this documented, material fact in its court pleadings). One of WoLF’s plaintiffs was sexually assaulted by one of the dozens of men who have already been transferred, and she suffers ongoing trauma as the state refuses to admit that her attacker is a man. So much for “this never happens.” (It has also happened in New Jersey, Washington, New York, and everywhere else that women are inhumanely locked in cages with men.)

The tide is turning. Just last week, WoLF learned that a SB 132-style bill in Maryland has failed to make it out of committee. We look forward to raising the profile of this issue and others that negatively affect and violate womens’ rights and safety.

See all of the case documents here.

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