US judges condemn Trump appointee's 'vulgar barroom talk' in transgender bias case

By Daniel Wiessner
March 13, 20264:54 PM EDTUpdated March 13, 2026

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The James R. Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building, home of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is pictured in San Francisco, California February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Noah Berger/FIle Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Summary
• Comment about male anatomy condemned by 29 judges
• Judge has criticized court over guns, immigration
• Court said nude spa for women can't bar transgender customer

March 13 (Reuters) - ADVISORY: This story contains sensitive language in paragraphs 3 and 4.

Nearly 30 U.S. appeals court judges have issued unusual written rebukes to a colleague over his coarsely worded dissent in a case involving a spa for women that refused ​service to a transgender woman.

The judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were writing late Thursday in response to Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke's dissent from ‌the full court's decision not to review the spa's claims that a Washington state anti-discrimination law violated its constitutional rights.

The dissent by VanDyke, an appointee of President Donald Trump, begins, "this is a case about swinging dicks." The judges who signed onto the responses included active and senior judges appointed by presidents from both parties.

"You may think that swinging dicks shouldn’t appear in a judicial opinion," VanDyke wrote. "I hope we all can agree that it is far more ​jarring for the unsuspecting and exposed women at Olympus Spa — some as young as 13 — to be visually assaulted by the real thing."

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