A transgender woman currently in federal prison has sued the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging a December memo issued by the agency illegally excludes transgender people from a major federal anti-sexual assault law designed to protect incarcerated people.

Paulina Poe's suit, filed Wednesday in District of Columbia federal court, claims the memo was issued by the agency to bring it into compliance with an executive order on so-called gender ideology issued by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.

"The memorandum effectively rescinds specific regulations intended to protect this incredibly vulnerable population," the complaint said. "Corrections officers could put plaintiff at risk of sexual assault at any moment by housing her in a cell with a particularly dangerous prisoner, even inadvertently; transferring her to more dangerous housing; or forcing her to shower with male prisoners, among other things."

The lawsuit claims that the administration sought to change how it enforces the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, specifically with respect to transgender incarcerated people. A copy of the department's memo was attached to the lawsuit claiming the decision was in response to Executive Order 14168 which seeks to recognize a male-female gender binary as immutable.

The memo orders all agency staff trained on PREA matters, known as PREA auditors, to stop making compliance decisions under certain aspects of the law. The memo suspends various aspects of the department policies towards trans people, including providing separate shower facilities and creating individualized housing decisions for trans incarcerated people.

The department has struggled with correctly housing trans people, with the agency admitting last year that only a handful of trans people are in housing aligned with the person's chosen identity. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said in court filings in February 2025 that, of the 2,198 incarcerated transgender individuals, only 22 identify as trans women and one identifies as a trans man.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, which represents Poe, said his organization has also filed a lawsuit to keep those trans people from being moved into different housing.

Minter confirmed in a telephone interview with Law360 that the number of trans people in federal custody remains largely unchanged from last year, with 21 trans women still being held in their correct housing, after one of the plaintiffs died.

Poe's lawsuit claims that, by unilaterally issuing a memo, the DOJ failed to go through the proper rulemaking channels, including issuing public notice and holding a public comment period. The lawsuit says that, by doing this, the agency not only violated federal law but also the text of Executive Order 14168.

Minter said the history of federal protections for transgender incarcerated people goes back over 30 years to the 1994 U.S. Supreme Court case Farmer v. Brennan . The high court ruled that prison officials violated the rights of Dee Farmer, a transgender woman held in federal custody, by showing "deliberate indifference" to potential harm from other incarcerated people.

The case led to the creation of PREA, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress in 2003. The act, designed to eliminate sexual assault in prison, ordered the establishment of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to study the topic and offer policy suggestions to the BOP.

Minter said that, as the commission did its work, there was a recognition that gay men and trans women in particular were at extremely high risk for sexual violence in prisons. The NPREC released its report in June 2009 and suggested a suite of policy changes, some of which directly addressed issues related to trans incarcerated people.

The lawsuit said that the DOJ, through its December memo, seeks to undue many of those changes and eliminate virtually any protection for trans people in federal prison. The lawsuit seeks to not only invalidate the department's memo but require that the agency continue to enforce PREA regulations designed to protect transgender people.

Minter told Law360 that the lawsuit should be "open and shut," and that he anticipates they will win because of how the agency initiated the change to PREA enforcement. Even still, Minter stressed that the stakes are incredibly high for the people whom the law is designed to protect.

"Trans women are at such a high risk even with PREA protections. If they were to be removed it would be an unthinkable level of risk. It's unimaginably cruel and terrible to think about," Minter said. "It's 100% certain that the result of eliminating those protections would be increased sexual assaults in the federal prisons."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Poe is represented by Amy Whelan of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, Sarah Austin of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and Alexander Shalom, Natalie Kraner, Kegan Brown, Amanda K. Cipriano and Mikayla R. Berliner of Lowenstein Sandler LLP.

Counsel information for the government was not immediately available.

The case is Paulina Poe v. U.S. Department of Justice et al., case number 1:26-cv-01552, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

--Editing by Dave Trumbore.