Politics
Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration Restrictions on Transgender Prison Care
The high court leaves lower-court orders in place, preserving hormone therapy and other medical treatments for federal inmates while litigation proceeds.
By Headlinne · Compiled from reporting by CNN, NPR and Times of India
The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the administration of President Donald Trump from enforcing restrictions on gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender individuals held in federal prisons.
The justices issued a brief, unsigned order denying an emergency stay request from Solicitor General D. John Sauer, maintaining lower-court injunctions that keep treatments running during ongoing legal challenges.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision, stating they would have granted the application to let the policy take effect.
The ruling preserves access to hormone therapy and other specialized care for incarcerated transgender people as the broader lawsuit moves through the federal court system.
“This is a critical ruling for our clients and all transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The policy stems from an executive order signed by Trump on his first day back in office, which sought to halt treatments used to align an inmate's appearance with the opposite sex.
Under the blocked Bureau of Prisons directive, facilities would have phased out hormone therapies and banned social accommodations while retaining psychotherapy and psychiatry services.
Three federal prisoners who had received hormone therapy for years challenged the rules, arguing the sudden shift disrupted decades of agency practice and threatened nearly 1,000 people in custody.
NPR reported, citing Nowlin-Sohl, that the American Civil Liberties Union estimates over 2,000 individuals in custody identify as transgender, with about 800 currently prescribed hormone therapy.
The Times of India reported, citing court records, that about 600 inmates received hormone therapy in 2025.
The Trump administration argued in court filings that providing the specialized treatments created security risks, made recipients targets for attacks, and fostered resentment among other inmates.
Inmates countered that the agency provided hormone therapy safely for three decades without documenting security incidents, making the administration's new rationale arbitrary.
Medical experts consider gender-affirming care necessary for treating gender dysphoria, noting that withholding treatment can cause severe anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.
The high court has previously permitted other administration policies targeting transgender individuals to take effect, including restrictions on military service and passport gender markers.
The legal battle now returns to the lower courts to determine the ultimate constitutionality of the prison medical policy.
Reporting from
- CNNLeans left
Supreme Court hands Trump a rare loss on transgender prison care policy
- NPR NewsLeans left
Supreme Court upholds pause on Trump's anti-trans prison policy
- Times of IndiaBalanced
US top court nixes Trump admin's bid to restrict medical care for transgender inmates
How this article was made: Headlinne wrote it with AI from the 3 reports listed above. Direct quotes are checked word for word against those reports, every number appears in at least one of them, and no other sentence is copied from one. Photos are from those reports and credited to them. Each report’s page on Headlinne links to the outlet’s original.