Reposted by @monet-eleri.bsky.social
4th Cir. holds that shackling a pregnant inmate during labor and immediately post-partum, without penological justification, violates the Eighth Amendment AND this is such common sense prison officials should have known.
No QI.
www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/247...
![As discussed above, we find that the conduct of Witherspoon, Brodie, Williams, Lynch and Ragano constitutes “potential deliberate indifference,” id. at 448, such that summary judgment was inappropriate. So, the remaining issue is whether their conduct was clearly constitutionally deficient such that Thorpe applies. We hold that it was. Collapsing the inquiries is appropriate because the risk was obvious and Witherspoon and the four officers were “on notice of the full volley of harms their [shackling] practices created.” Thorpe, 37 F.4th at 936. As in Pfaller, 55 F.4th at 446, it is a matter of common sense that you should not shackle a pregnant offender while they are in active labor. Giving birth carries risks for both the pregnant offender and baby under any circumstances; between 2019 and 2023, North Carolina reported 29.8 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births, ranking 34th in the United States for maternal mortality. America’s Health Rankings](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:24vva42nxim6zbcmnozegoef/bafkreiak2q4ouvzmvf6cgl7zocxzqyb4sqfuopvrenk2w3xunnc2vvjvfy)
![Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination. Discrimination based on sex is expressly prohibited under Montana’s unique Nondiscrimination Clause––“[n]either the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate on account of . . . sex . . . .” Thus, Article II, Section 4 is
unequivocal in its intolerance for discrimination based on sex. Because sex discrimination involves a fundamental right under Article II, the appropriate level of judicial review is strict scrutiny. Snetsinger, ¶ 17.
¶28 Being transgender is also a suspect class under the Equal Protection Clause of
Article II, Section 4,––“[n]o person shall be denied equal protection of the law.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:inwzoq34u52clnzwfmmv4j3b/bafkreidt45gkkqkhg24folszm4hyzpnuoyoe3f6f3pmqpoiqtvf6lweexi)
