DENVER–The U.S. Supreme Court this week ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider a case in which a transgender detainee alleged discrimination while in custody of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
The case, originally filed as Griffith v. El Paso County, was brought by Darlene Griffith, a biological man identifying as a woman who was a pretrial detainee in the El Paso County jail in 2020. Griffith sued in U.S. District Court in 2021, alleging violations of the Fourth and 14th amendments, including the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Griffith, when jailed, requested to be put in the women’s unit, but was housed with men under a jail policy that assigns housing based on genitalia. Griffith also alleged being denied items available to female detainees through the jail commissary, including lipstick, women’s underwear and a sports bra. As part of the jail’s intake process, Griffith underwent a visual body-cavity search, during which a female deputy inspected Griffith above the waist and a male deputy inspected below the waist. Griffith had asked that a female deputy conduct the entire search.
The district court dismissed the case. In February 2025, a divided three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals revived several of Griffith’s claims, including challenges to the jail’s housing and commissary policies and to the search. The panel did not rule on whether the jail’s policies were constitutional, only that the claims could proceed.
In October 2025, attorneys for El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, asking the court to review the case.
“Officials must be able to respond to legitimate penological concerns, such as security and privacy interests, in this country’s vastly different detention settings,” the petition said. “The Court should grant the petition and reaffirm that the deferential standards in Turner and Bell apply to sex-based prison classifications and cross-identified-gender searches, ensuring prison administrators and policymakers have the discretion necessary to maintain safe, secure, and humane facilities.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a “grant, vacate and remand” order, sending the case back to the 10th Circuit “for further consideration” in light of the court’s decisions in West Virginia v. B. P. J. (2026) and U.S. v. Skrmetti (2025).
In West Virginia v. B. P. J., decided in June, the court upheld a West Virginia law that bar biological males from girls’ and women’s sports teams. In U.S. v. Skrmetti, decided in June 2025, the court held that a Tennessee law banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors doesn’t violate the equal protection clause.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to Complete Colorado’s request for comment on the order.
The Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative policy group, called the order “an important step” in allowing correctional facilities to maintain sex-based policies.
“Biological sex matters, especially in prisons, where the safety, privacy, and dignity of women are at stake,” said Beth Parlato, senior legal counsel for the Independent Women’s Law Center. “Correctional officials have a responsibility to protect the women in their custody, and the Constitution does not require them to disregard biological reality to accommodate gender identity.”
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