Supreme Court declines to let administration end gender-affirming care in federal prisons

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the Trump administration's emergency request to put into effect a policy ending gender-affirming medical care for transgender people held in federal prisons, according to Maryland Matters and other States Newsroom outlets.

As a result, a lower court injunction against the policy stays in force for now, and transgender inmates will keep receiving that care while the case continues, the outlets reported.

The court's order gave no reasoning. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas indicated they would have granted the administration's request and lifted the injunction, according to the reports.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked the policy since June 2025, the outlets reported.

The dispute traces back to an executive order from President Donald Trump that barred the federal Bureau of Prisons from providing gender-affirming care to transgender people in its custody.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the order in court. According to the South Dakota Searchlight, the class action covers about 1,000 transgender inmates who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition treated with hormone therapy and other forms of gender-affirming care.

The case was first brought by three plaintiffs, two transgender men and one transgender woman, held at federal prisons in Florida, Minnesota and New Jersey, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. The lawsuit contends that cutting off the care violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, welcomed the decision in a statement. "This is a critical ruling for our clients and all transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody," Nowlin-Sohl said, as reported by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. She also argued that withholding medically necessary treatment from prisoners infringes on their constitutional rights.

In its filing with the Supreme Court, the administration said it no longer accepts the guidelines of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which the Bureau of Prisons had followed before the executive order, according to the outlets.

The Justice Department argued that those guidelines were not based on current scientific evidence. It also told the court that the earlier policy created security and prison management problems that, in its view, outweighed the limited benefits of the treatment, the reports said.

Wednesday's order is not a final ruling on the merits of the policy. The underlying lawsuit continues in the lower courts.

Compiled by True News from reporting by Maryland Matters, South Dakota Searchlight, Idaho Capital Sun and Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/336