Qualified Immunity

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Mark A. Campbell v. Kevin Kallas, et al.

Case No.: 18-2075

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and SYKES and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Qualified Immunity

Mark Campbell, also known as Nicole Rose Campbell, is an inmate in the Wisconsin prison system. In 2007 Campbell pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault of a child and is now serving a 34-year sentence. Campbell has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; she is biologically male but identifies as female. Department of Corrections (“DOC”) medical staff are treating Campbell’s condition with cross-gender hormone therapy.

Beginning in September 2013, Campbell repeatedly requested a more radical intervention: sex-reassignment surgery. National standards of care recommend that patients undertake one year of “real life” experience as a person of their self-identified gender before resorting to irreversible surgical options. That preparatory period presents challenges for officials charged with the administration of sex-segregated prisons. DOC officials consulted an outside expert, who determined that Campbell was a potential surgical candidate. But the expert’s cautious conclusion was conditioned on DOC officials developing a safe, workable solution to the real-life-experience dilemma. Citing these concerns and DOC policy, officials denied Campbell’s request.

After filing grievances and exhausting administrative appeals, Campbell sued Dr. Kevin Kallas, the DOC Mental Health Director, and a host of other prison officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. She alleged that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to her serious medical needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment and sought damages and injunctive relief. Both sides moved for summary judgment, and the defendants also claimed qualified immunity. The district court denied the motions. As relevant here, the judge rejected the claim of qualified immunity, concluding that caselaw clearly established a constitutional right to effective medical treatment.

We reverse. Qualified immunity shields a public official from suit for damages unless caselaw clearly puts him on notice that his action is unconstitutional. The judge’s approach to the qualified-immunity question was far too general. The Eighth Amendment requires prison healthcare professionals to exercise medical judgment when making decisions about an inmate’s treatment. And they cannot completely deny the care of a serious medical condition. But cases recognizing those broad principles could not have warned these defendants that treating an inmate’s gender dysphoria with hormone therapy and deferring consideration of sex-reassignment surgery violates the Constitution. Moreover, it’s doubtful that a prisoner can prove a case of deliberate indifference when, as here, prison officials followed accepted medical standards. The defendants are immune from damages liability.

Reversed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.