The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Indiana prison officials to overturn a state law that bars the use of public money for gender-affirming surgery for inmates, in a case brought on behalf of a transgender woman serving a lengthy sentence for killing an 11-month-old child.
The suit argues the ban is unconstitutional; the state counters that taxpayers should not have to fund the procedures. The dispute places one of the most polarising questions in American law, what medical care prisons must provide, before the federal courts.
