Trump taps SCOTUS in bid to block gender-affirming care for transgender inmates

The Trump administration filed its 41st emergency application at the Supreme Court, asking justices to lift a lower court order blocking new Bureau of Prisons restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender federal inmates. The 2026 policy would end hormone treatment, social accommodations and surgery, reversing prior rules; a lower court froze it partly because the administration had no evidence such treatments ever caused security problems.

The government argues courts should simply defer to prison officials' “expertise” on security matters without requiring supporting evidence, while separately claiming the 2026 policy was an independent judgment rather than an extension of Trump's 2025 executive order restoring “biological truth to the federal government.” The lower court rejected that framing, finding the policy was reverse-engineered to implement the order.

The administration also argues transgender inmates would suffer no real harm from losing access to care, calling hormone treatment and social accommodations “not medically necessary.” The Supreme Court has not yet responded to the application.

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