Private Manning back in court . . . as a plaintiff

Private Chelsea E. Manning is back in court, this time as a plaintiff suing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and various U.S. Army officials. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, can be found here. It asks, among other things, that the court

(a) Declare that Defendants’ actions denying Plaintiff necessary medical treatment for gender dysphoria violate the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution;

(b) Enter an injunction directing Defendants and their agents to provide Plaintiff with clinically appropriate treatment under the Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender-Nonconforming People developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, including, but not limited to, (1) providing hormone therapy for Plaintiff’s gender dysphoria; (2) permitting Plaintiff to express her female gender by following female grooming standards, including dress and hair length; and (3) providing Plaintiff with treatment by a clinician who is qualified to treat gender dysphoria.

Pvt. Manning is represented by a team of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers headed by Arthur B. Spitzer, long-time Legal Director of the ACLU's National Capital Area affiliate, and by David E. Coombs, who was civilian defense counsel in the court-martial.