Veronica-May Clark v. Gerald Valletta, et al.

New Haven, Connecticut, civil rights lawyer represented the Plaintiff on a deliberate indifference constitutional violation.



Plaintiff Veronica-May Clark is a transgender inmate in the Connecticut prison system claiming that corrections officials violated the Eighth Amendment by failing to provide certain treatments for gender dysphoria, including stronger hormone therapy and a vaginoplasty. The district court denied defendants' motion for summary judgement, finding that Defendants violated a clearly established right "to be free from deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.”

The Second Circuit concluded that Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. Inmates have no clearly established right to be treated by gender-dysphoria specialists or to receive specific treatments for gender dysphoria. And reasonable officers could disagree on the legality of Defendants’ efforts to treat Clark, including with talk therapy and antidepressants.