Supreme Court keeps block on Trump administration’s transgender prison care policy
publishers 29articles 29first reported 21 Oct, 15:46 UTCdeveloping since 21 Oct · 8 editions
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to enforce a Bureau of Prisons policy restricting gender-affirming care for transgender people in federal custody while litigation continues.
The unexplained order leaves in place a lower-court injunction requiring the bureau to continue treatments and accommodations, including hormone therapy, that the policy sought to end. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have granted the administration’s request.
The dispute arose after President Donald Trump directed the federal government to bar medical treatment intended to align an inmate’s appearance with a gender identity different from the person’s sex assigned at birth. The Bureau of Prisons subsequently adopted restrictions covering hormone therapy, surgery and social accommodations, while continuing to permit psychotherapy and psychiatric services for gender dysphoria.
A federal district court blocked the policy, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to pause that ruling. The appeals court said the bureau likely had not adequately considered its previous experience providing gender-affirming care.
The administration argued that the earlier policy created security and prison-management concerns. Prisoners challenging the restrictions said the change would halt longstanding treatment for nearly 1,000 people in federal custody and violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court’s order does not resolve the underlying case, which will continue in the lower courts.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 7 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 44 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 7, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 44 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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