Supreme Court Refuses to Let Trump Cut Transgender Inmate Care
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to let the Trump administration gradually end transgender-related medical services for prison inmates who want to be treated as members of the opposite sex.
The justices split 7-2 against the government, turning away its emergency request to enforce the restrictions while the lawsuit continues. The majority gave no explanation. Only Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the request: Thomas, appointed by George H.W. Bush, and Alito, by George W. Bush.
At issue is a Bureau of Prisons policy adopted this year that would halt hormone therapy, surgery, and a range of day-to-day accommodations such as female undergarments, makeup, and wigs for inmates who identify as transgender. It followed an executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office in January 2025, which pledged to restore what he called “biological truth” and barred federal money for care meant to help inmates live as the opposite sex.
Breaking: Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency application to restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender inmates @CourthouseNews https://t.co/f5xDrqDitp
— Kelsey Reichmann (@KelseyReichmann) October 21, 2026
Government lawyers maintained that the restrictions were the prison bureau’s own decision, not a product of the order, and that running a secure prison was justification enough on its own. Transgender inmates would lose nothing they truly needed, the administration argued, calling hormones and social accommodations “not medically necessary” for gender dysphoria
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, rejected that account. He concluded the policy had been built backward from the executive order to give it a legal footing and froze it while the case runs its course, faulting officials for never explaining why gender dysphoria should be handled differently from any other medical condition. (Read more from “Supreme Court Refuses to Let Trump Cut Transgender Inmate Care” HERE)
