Federal Judge Rejects ACLU Request to Require Taxpayer-Funded Gender “Transition” for Convicted Murderer

At the end of 2024, the General Assembly uncovered that a scheme by the Beshear Administration to pay for gender “transitions” for prisoners. This led to an effort during the 2025 General Assembly to ban such wasteful uses of taxpayer-dollars. The final product of this effort was SB 2, which The Family Foundation supported. The House and the Senate overwhelmingly passed SB 2, and the law went into effect without the governor’s signature.

Shortly after SB 2 went into effect, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against SB 2, arguing that the U.S. Constitution requires taxpayer-funded gender “transitions” for prisoners. Specifically, the ACLU argues that not paying for gender “transitions” violates the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The lead plaintiff in this case is Matthew Paul Smith; a man who claims to be a woman and is in prison for committing a heinous murder. The media and the ACLU have repeatedly falsely labeled Mr. Smith as a woman.

On September 12, a Kentucky federal judge rejected the ACLU’s request for a temporary injunction, allowing SB 2 to remain in full effect while the case proceeds through the court system. The ACLU has already committed to continuing this case with their legal director stating, “[SB 2’s] cruel policy violates our clients’ right to receive medically necessary healthcare.” It must be noted that gender “transitions” are not medically necessary, nor even possible, and the only cruelty in this case is the plaintiff’s crime and the idea that taxpayers must foot the bill for his elective “transition” procedure.

In response to the ruling from the Kentucky judge, the ACLU has already filed an emergency appeal with the Sixth Circuit, asking them to halt SB 2 while the case is litigated. We hope the appellate judges who consider this case will also reject the ridiculous arguments from the ACLU.

The U.S. Constitution contains no right to taxpayer-funded gender “transitions,” especially for convicted murderers. As our executive director David Walls said when the case was filed, “[t]his lawsuit from the ACLU is just another example of their radical efforts to push an out of touch far-left agenda in the Commonwealth. It is not possible to change someone’s gender, and these so-called “gender transition” procedures do nothing more than mutilate an individual’s body . . . Tax dollars must not be wasted on attempting to do the impossible.”

We thank the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office for defending this commonsense law, and we remain confident that SB 2 will be ruled constitutional and that Kentuckian’s taxpayer-dollars will remain protected from radical gender ideology.