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Federal appeals court rules transgender women in Oregon prisons can be housed in men’s prisons. A three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that Oregon’s Department of Corrections does not need to presume transgender women should be housed in women’s prisons and may continue to make case-by-case placement decisions. Currently, only eight of the 120 trans women in Oregon prisons are housed with women, though fewer than 30 of these women have requested transfers to women’s prisons. The Oregon Department of Justice did, however, condemn the anti-trans language the federal judges used in their decision. Judge blocks University of California (UC) system from enforcing sexual harassment policy protecting transgender students and staff. An organization called Defending Education sued the UC system to challenge a policy defining intentional and repeated misgendering and deadnaming as harassment, claiming the policy violated their members’ First Amendment right to express their beliefs that sex assigned at birth is immutable. Federal judge Fred Slaughter blocked the UC system from enforcing the policy while the lawsuit proceeds, finding that Defending Education is likely to succeed on the merits of its lawsuit because the UC policy “compels speech and it viewpoint-based.” Three news networks regain White House access after federal judge temporarily blocks President’s ban. Journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were allowed to access the White House on September 24th, almost a week after Trump banned them from the property. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly reinstated the networks’ access for 14 days while their legal challenge against the President’s ban proceeded. NYU Langone hospital settles Justice Department (DOJ) investigation, agrees to stop providing medically necessary care to trans and nonbinary youth. NYU Langone Health will pay $8.5 million to the federal government and end its Transgender Youth Health Program – which had been inactive since February – as part of an agreement reached with the DOJ to end an investigation into the program. The hospital announced that the settlement meant patient records would not have to be handed over to the government. University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (UPMC) settles investigation with the DOJ, agrees to a 10-year moratorium on providing medically necessary care to trans and nonbinary youth. The hospital ceased providing gender-affirming care to trans youth under 19 last summer; the agreement extends this moratorium for another 10 years. The hospital will also pay the federal government a penalty of $950,000. UPMC released a statement acknowledging the agreement on September 18th, saying the settlement would “avoid prolonged litigation, protect patients and families from unnecessary disclosure of sensitive personal and health information, protect employees, and remain focused on patient care and advancing its core mission.” Trump Administration announces 760,000 Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees are being removed from coverage. Vice President JD Vance announced the enrollment cuts on September 18th, claiming that the enrollments were fraudulent. Vance also announced that “additional verifications” would be performed on 419,000 enrollees who may also, in the Administration’s view, be fraudulently enrolled. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz stated that the enrollments were deemed fraudulent based on lack of health Top DOJ official warns prosecutors that they could be fired if they decline to pursue alleged voter fraud cases. Aakash Singh, the top lieutenant to the deputy attorney general, told DOJ lawyers that they must pursue election fraud cases that FBI or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents present to them, or risk termination. Singh also told supervisors that the FBI and DHS may overrule a prosecutor who declines to pursue one of their investigations, and that the Office of the Deputy Attorney General would make the final decision on whether a case goes forward, overriding long-standing DOJ rules that require prosecutors to independently assess whether the evidence presented to them merits pursuing a case. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) attacks transgender people on the Senate floor. Senator Tuberville refused to use the term “transgender,” instead calling people whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth “gender confused.” He linked transgender people with recent violent incidents, and suggested that transgender people are part of a larger plot to destroy the country.
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