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From the Courts: Civil Commitment; Gender Dysphoria; Failure to Diagnose  


Author:  Ken Kozlowski.


Source: Volume 24, Number 02, Spring 2023 , pp.31-34(4)




Correctional Health Care Report

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Abstract: 

Our regular review of important court decisions includes three cases. In United States v. Gray, No. 22-1031, the 8th Circuit ruled that the case record supported a prisoner’s civil commitment to the custody of the United States Attorney General for treatment of a mental disease or defect. In Kesha Williams v. Stacey Kincaid, No. 21-2030 (4th Cir. 2022), the 4th Circuit ruled that Ms. Williams had plausibly alleged that gender dysphoria does not fall within the ADA’s exclusion for “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments.” The appeals court reversed the summary judgment on behalf of defendant Sheriff Kincaid of the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and two co-defendants and remanded the case to the district court for consideration on the merits. In Brown v. Osmundson, 38 F.4th 545 (7th Cir. 2022), a federal appeals court affirmed the district courts summary judgment for defendants, stating that the prison medical staff, in failing to correctly diagnose appendicitis and treating an inmate for abdominal pain before sending him to a hospital did not amount to deliberate indifference of the inmate’s medical needs.

Keywords: Serious Mental Disorders; Civil Commitment; Gender Dysphoria; Failure to Diagnose

Affiliations:  1: Contributing Editor.

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