The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) rejected the bid by the administration of US president Donald Trump to immediately restrict gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons.
Earlier, in February, the Federal Bureau of Prisons started implementing a policy prohibiting medical and surgical treatments as well as any “social accommodations” such as clothing and hair-removal devices that could be used to alter a person’s appearance to align with their gender identity.
This is aligned with the anti-LGBTQIA+ efforts of Trump, who is the first convicted felon to be president of the US. Among others, the former TV personality issued an executive order recognizing only two genders (male and female), and ordering changes be made in federal agencies, including that “males are not detained in women’s prisons” and halting funding for treatments “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
A class action lawsuit challenging the policy of the Federal Bureau of Prisons was filed by three transgender inmates incarcerated at federal correctional institutions in New Jersey, Florida, and Minnesota.
Washington, DC-based US District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked the restrictions on federal prisoners in June. According to Lamberth, the Federal Bureau of Prisons disregarded its own evidence and experience and “reverse engineered” the measure in order to implement Trump’s executive order. Also, the policy is likely “arbitrary and capricious” and violates a federal law governing agency procedures.
On September 18, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused the administration’s request to lift Lamberth’s ruling. This led to the Justice Department bringing the case to the SCOTUS>
This time, the SCOTUS denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to lift Lamberth’s order.
There are over 2,000 transgender inmates in federal facilities and halfway houses, according to a government figure from 2025.
