Ronnie Dement and Jessie Aldo Razo are wards of the California Youth Authority, held at the Karl Holton School, Northern California Center in Stockton, California. The school houses male wards between the ages of 16-22. The boys argued that their privacy was invaded by the presence of female guards as supervisors and observers in the shower and bathroom areas. They also argued that the presence of female guards served no "rehabilitative purpose," and that the boys' right to privacy outweighs "any purported right to equal employment opportunity." The trial court's order "notes not order that women be barred from any job classification. It merely orders that women not be assigned as observers in the central observation post. It merely prevents women from supervising the shower and latrine areas."

The ACLU submitted an amicus brief, along with Equal Rights Advocates, Inc., Women in Criminal Justice-North, and The Association of Black Correctional Workers, questioning "whether the state has a duty to safeguard the privacy interests of the wards of California's Youth Authority facilities without invading the equal employment rights of the female correctional staff." The court, contemplating such solutions as "modesty panels" in the shower areas, agreed with Dement and Razo.