Amazon / Sidley September 2026 Research Clinic Instructions

Project Overview:

Lawyers for Good Government’s Gender Justice & Health Equity Team seeks assistance from Amazon and Sidley Austin, LLP in researching state laws and Department of Corrections policies related to transgender people who are incarcerated. 

A cornerstone of L4GG’s transgender rights policy work is our Policy Resource Hub for Transgender Rights. Through the work of over 300 pro bono attorneys and L4GG’s own in-house experts, the Hub is updated every single business day for every U.S. state and territory and verified for accuracy. It currently answers 3 questions: 1) what is the law governing access to medically-necessary gender-affirming healthcare in your state; 2) what is the law on education, identification documents and public accommodations for transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in your state; and 3) what are the constitutional provisions and civil rights laws in your state pertaining to the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming people.  

We now plan to launch a new question to the Hub, in response to a repeatedly expressed need from our community, on state laws and Department of Corrections policies related to transgender people who are incarcerated.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION:

L4GG is a community of 125,000 lawyers, law students, and activists fighting to ensure equal rights, equal opportunities and equal justice under the law. We coordinate large scale pro bono programs and engage in advocacy and policy work, seeking not only to establish and enforce equality under the law, but to also create the social and economic conditions that lead to true equity.

Instructions for Participating VOLUNTEERs:

  1. Attend the Training.

    Training will be held on September 30 at 2 pm ET. The clinic will begin with a training by L4GG’s attorneys on the context and importance of the research, as well as the research questions and methods. 

  2. Review the Research Questions.

    We recommend that you review each of the research questions and decide on the order of your research prior to beginning. Please note that we are not seeking research on federal policies or policies of local counties or sheriff’s offices. Please focus specifically on state statutes and policies governing state facilities.While you are researching, we recommend that you pull the questions into a separate document for your particular state/territory, so that you are able to take notes as you research. 

  3. Conduct Your Research.

    When starting, we recommend conducting a simple Google search of your state and checking the state’s Department of Corrections policies. Please note that states that are more affirming to transgender people will have more publicly available information regarding their policies than states that are less affirming to transgender people. 

    • Note: while some state Department of Corrections websites may have published language such as “we are committed to equal treatment of all inmates regardless of gender status” that does not mean that they are providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender inmates or housing transgender people according to their gender identity.

    Review the “Supplemental Tools and Resources” section of this document for additional background materials that you can use to guide your search.

    Brainstorm terms before you begin your search. Most topics can be described in numerous ways, and not all jurisdictions will use the same terminology. Develop a list of relevant terms up front and continue to refine it as you continue your research. Keyword recommendations include: “gender dysphoria;” “transgender;” “intersex;”  “gender incongruence;” “gender identity;” “gender diverse;”  “housing assignment;” “placement;” “hormone therapy;” and “gender-affirming care.” 

    As you are researching, please double check to ensure that a given law or regulation is presently in effect, as the legal landscape has changed significantly in recent years. Where relevant, please summarize the case law and litigation history and explain how those decisions have affected the current state of the law.

    Look for coverage from reputable secondary sources. News articles can help decipher what is happening with a given law in plain terms. 

  4. Compile Your Research.

    We recommend that during the legal research process, you gather your findings in a Word or Google document prior to completing the online form.

  5. Citations.

    Whenever discussing any laws, regulations, or cases in your responses, please provide both the Bluebook citation and link to the citation in Justia. We ask that any citations to statute are linked to Justia - if you find the citation or case in Westlaw or Lexis, please then search for it in Justia to provide a publicly available link. This allows us to easily add the research to public facing materials for our community. 

  6. Copy with Hyperlink: 

    Whenever possible, please copy a link directly to the relevant section of the code you’re citing.  You can do this by right clicking on text in the relevant public web page and selecting the option to “copy link to highlight,” so whoever clicks said link is brought to the exact text you highlighted, helping readers navigate text-heavy documents. 

  7. Submit Your Research.

    Once you have completed your research, please copy and paste your team’s findings into the corresponding fields using this online form. Only one form should be submitted for each state by the team.

    Please check your answers for accuracy before pressing “Submit.”

    If you are not able to submit your research before the end of the clinic, please make sure to submit by Friday, October 2.

  8. Repeat Steps #2-7 for Each State Assigned to Your Team

Questions?

  • During the clinic: Click the “Raise Hand” button or come into the main Zoom room

  • After the clinic: Email Zane@L4GG.org and Lauren@L4GG.org

Tools:

As you conduct your research, we recommend you consult the following resources:

Primary Sources

  • Your Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg or Fastcase Account: We request that you begin all primary research in whichever subscription legal research tool you have access to and then utilize additional research tools to ensure that you are viewing the most updated version of the law. If your subscription includes an AI tool, it may be helpful for locating statutes and state Department of Corrections policies and for confirming, updating, and supplementing your research with current statutes and case law. If you do use an AI tool, please independently verify any information provided by it.

  • Justia: This is a publicly available resource for the state codes of each jurisdiction. However, it does not include Westlaw or Lexis’s keycite or red flags to show if there is superseding case law. If you need to cite a historical version of a state statute, please provide a Justia hyperlink citation to the most recent version of the statute or the relevant historical version of the statute as appropriate

    Supplemental Tools and Resources

  • The LGBTQ+ Bar’s Resource Guide to Improve Safety in Carceral Housing for Transgender People: This resource includes a map of governing provisions related to housing in carceral institutions. It may be helpful when addressing the second question, but it may not be up to date, so additional research will be needed. 

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

(PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE CITATIONS AND LINKS WHEN AVAILABLE FOR EACH OF YOUR ANSWERS)

For your assigned state, please answer the following questions:

[1] Does state law and/or the state Department of Corrections have any policies, rules, or regulations about providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender people who are incarcerated? If yes,

[1a] Please identify the relevant law, policy, rule, or regulation and describe whether it requires, permits, restricts, or prohibits access to such care.

[1b] Please provide a citation and public link to the relevant law.

[2] Does state law and/or the state Department of Corrections have any policies, rules, or regulations regarding the housing or placement of transgender people who are incarcerated? Specifically, do the rules require or permit placement based on sex assigned at birth, legal sex, gender identity, the individual’s preference, safety or security considerations, or another factor? If yes,

[2a] Please identify the relevant law, policy, or regulation and describe the applicable housing or placement requirements.

[2b] Please provide a citation and public link to the relevant law.

Once you have completed your research, please submit your responses (with citations/links) using this online form. Thank you for contributing to this important project.