Maine refuses to comply with DOJ subpoena for trans prisoner’s confidential records

Maine is fighting a Justice Department subpoena seeking confidential prison records involving a transgender woman housed in a women’s correctional facility.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office filed a motion Monday in federal court saying the state prison system cannot turn over the records without a judge’s order because Maine law treats inmate medical, administrative and investigative records as confidential, according to the Portland Press Herald. The records sought by the federal government include information related to Andrea Balcer, a transgender woman incarcerated at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.

The Justice Department sent the subpoena June 15, seeking all grievances related to Balcer, along with responses and investigative materials from the Maine Department of Corrections, the Press Herald reported. Federal officials also sought Balcer’s prison records, including housing decisions, as well as records involving one inmate who had complained about her. State attorneys said in the filing that it is “possible that USDOJ will seek additional records from MDOC as the investigation progresses.”

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Under Maine law, “orders of commitment, medical and administrative records, applications and reports” about incarcerated people are confidential. The Press Herald reported that the protected records would include medical and mental health information and investigative files under the Prison Rape Elimination Act. If a judge orders Maine to comply, the state is asking for a confidentiality order barring the Justice Department from publicly disclosing private information.

The subpoena stems from a March Justice Department investigation into Maine’s policy of housing transgender incarcerated people in facilities aligned with their gender identity. The department also opened an investigation into California’s prison policies at the same time. The DOJ said it was examining whether the states were violating the constitutional rights of women incarcerated in those facilities.

The investigation followed complaints from several women at the Maine Correctional Center who alleged Balcer had sexually harassed them. The women said they complained to the Maine Department of Corrections but that Balcer was not moved. They filed a lawsuit in April against Balcer and prison officials. Balcer did not have an attorney listed in that civil case as of Wednesday, according to the Press Herald.

Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty told state lawmakers in June that the prison system is complying with state and federal law.

The fight over Maine’s records comes as the Trump administration has pressed federal and state prison systems to disregard transgender prisoners’ gender identity. As The Advocate has reported, Trump’s January 2025 executive order directed federal agencies to recognize only two sexes and required the Bureau of Prisons to house people according to sex assigned at birth. The policy threatened to move transgender women from women’s prisons regardless of their medical history, prior placement decisions, or documented safety concerns.

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But federal courts have repeatedly limited the administration’s efforts to carry out that policy. In June, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth again blocked the administration from transferring 14 transgender women in federal custody to men’s prisons, finding that the women were likely to succeed in their challenge and faced imminent and irreparable harm if moved.

Lamberth’s order requires the Bureau of Prisons to maintain the women’s current placements in women’s prisons and halfway houses while the case proceeds. The judge found that the plaintiffs had shown a substantial risk of serious harm if transferred, including risks of physical violence, sexual assault, severe psychological distress, self-harm, and suicide.

The court rejected the government’s argument that harms could be addressed after a transfer. Lamberth wrote that it is “fundamentally unreasonable” for prison officials to intentionally create serious risks and then offer to treat the consequences after they occur. The judge also faulted the Bureau of Prisons for adopting a categorical transfer policy without first determining whether individual transgender women could be housed safely in women’s facilities.

The Justice Department has cast Maine’s policy as part of what it calls a broader national trend that endangers cisgender women in custody.

“Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense – it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said when the investigation was announced in March. “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the department would investigate whether the states’ policies create unconstitutional risks.

“Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will not allow women incarcerated in jails or prisons to be subject to unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates,” Dhillon said. “These investigations will uncover whether the dangerous national trend of housing men in women’s prisons has resulted in violations of women’s constitutional rights.”