On January 6, 2023, a federal court in the District of Maryland awarded summary judgment to Jesse Hammons in his lawsuit against the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center owned by the University of Maryland Medical System. As local counsel to the ACLU, Rosenberg Martin Greenberg assisted Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in the filing and litigation of this case.
Mr. Hammons, a transgender man, filed suit in 2020 after defendants cancelled his medically necessary hysterectomy at St. Joseph. Although defendants commonly perform hysterectomies at the hospital, they denied Mr. Hammons care because the hospital claimed that his procedure was gender-affirming, in violation of Catholic directives. Siding with Mr. Hammons, the court held that the defendants’ refusal to perform Mr. Hammons’ procedure was discriminatory and in violation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Hammons called the decision “a great win for myself and all transgender people denied equal treatment because of who they are,” and expressed hope that defendants “can change this harmful policy and help more transgender people access the care they need.”
The ACLU’s press release is available here.
The court’s ruling is available here.
To read more press coverage, click here for an article from Bloomberg Law and here from The Baltimore Sun.