The case was argued before the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on April 2, 2013, after the Commonwealth appealed Wolf’s ruling. Joseph L. Sulman and David Brody of the Law Office of Joseph L. Sulman are representing Kosilek.
Kosilek was denied reassignment surgery by the Department of Corrections (DOC) against the recommendations of multiple doctors hired by DOC. In ruling last fall that DOC violated Kosilek’s 8th amendment right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf found that DOC engaged in a pattern of “pretense, pretext and prevarication” to deny her treatment.