The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently held that individual defendants in a Section 1983 lawsuit brought by a transgender inmate were entitled to qualified immunity on some, but not all, of the inmate’s claims. Specifically, the inmate’s Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search) and First Amendment (retaliation) claims survived the qualified-immunity challenge. Judge Jane Kelly concurred in part and dissented in part, and would also have denied qualified immunity to the individual defendants on the First Amendment (expressive conduct) and Eighth Amendment (deliberate indifference) claims.
The case, Beard v. Falkenrath, 97 F.4th 1109 (8th Cir. 2024), arises out of the ill treatment plaintiff Sease Beard allegedly suffered at the hands of guards in a Missouri state prison. The plaintiff is a transgender woman. In 2017, while incarcerated in that correctional system, the plaintiff was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began hormone-replacement therapy in late 2018. She continues to receive treatment for gender dysphoria and to receive hormone therapy.
