Back in April, Judge Mark D. Clarke ruled in favor of two trans women prisoners who had sued the state of Oregon over the fact that they were being housed in a male prison.
Two incarcerated trans women seeking a class action suit to represent trans women in Oregon prisons sued the Department of Corrections in September, winning a preliminary injunction in April after they alleged consistent sexual abuse, retaliation and violence during their time in custody with men...
Clarke had ruled in April that Oregon’s Department of Corrections must provide “a presumption of placement consistent with each woman’s gender identity absent a documented and articulable security justification,” which could be implemented through training, housing transfers and “creative” alternatives.
Judge Clarke ordered that prisoners be housed with the gender they identify with absent extenuating circumstances and that seemed to be where things were headed but the state appealed his ruling.
“The court issued a mandatory preliminary injunction under the Eighth Amendment that micromanages the state’s administration of its prison system for transgender women (adults in custody) under terms both vague and overbroad,” Oregon attorneys wrote in an appeal filing. “The court also provisionally certified a class of all transgender women in ODOC custody and then ordered the disclosure of their personal information otherwise protected by Oregon law — including their names and gender identities — without their consent to the individual named plaintiffs’ counsel.”
Earlier this month the appeals court ruled temporarily blocked Clarke's order while it considered the appeal. And yesterday oral arguments were held before a panel of three judges.
A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Thursday from Oregon state attorneys, challenging an order that the state change how it houses transgender women in prison...
The judges of the panel, all of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump, had significantly more questions for the plaintiffs’ attorney. In particular, the judges seemed skeptical that there was evidence that transgender women would prefer to transfer to a women’s prison.
“I don’t know if there’s any basis for that,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke said. “It’s at least theoretically possible that they didn’t request a transfer because they don’t want to.”
I think it's reasonable to argue that men acting like women in a men's prison probably puts them in danger. However, I also think it's reasonable to assume that men acting like women in a women's prison puts the other women prisoners in danger. As I pointed out here, the two trans women who filed this lawsuit might be case in point. None of the stories about this topic on Oregon media mention who the plaintiffs are and there's an obvious reason.
The initial complaint, filed in September 2025 on behalf of men identified only as “S.D.” and “J.F.”, alleges that housing males who claim a transgender status in men’s prisons violates their constitutional rights...
Inmate “J.F.” is Jessica Anne Marie Foust, previously known as John Jay Chapman. He has been designated as a “vulnerable” inmate by the ODOC, and asserts that he is “a legal female.”
In 2008, Chapman was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a developmentally disabled woman who resided at an adult foster home in Gresham, Oregon, managed by his mother. While incarcerated, Chapman was convicted on four counts of assaulting a correctional officer. Three years later, in 2015, he began to identify as transgender...
The class action suit also includes the experiences of inmates identified as “Z.Z.” and “L.B.” Reduxx can identify Z.Z. and L.B. as “Zera Lola Zombie” and “Lillithia Moon Blood-Gaia.”
Zombie, born Daniel Lee Smith, is a violent trans-identified male who is classified as a “female” inmate in the Oregon inmate directory and is housed in women’s prison Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF). He is serving a 35-year sentence for charges including the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Samantha Brown. In 2014, Brown was beaten to death, her corpse left in the trailer home she and Zombie shared.
As for plaintiff L.B., he's in prison for molesting a child, a female child.
A rapist, a molester and a man who murdered his girlfriend. These are the trans women plaintiffs in this case. Does anyone think putting these individuals in a women's prison could be a bad idea? That seems pretty common sense to me but apparently not to Judge Mark Clarke.
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