Supreme Court Leaves Prison Transgender Care Policy in Place in 7-2 Ruling
The Supreme Court voted 7-2 to leave in place a lower-court order preserving the federal Bureau of Prisons' policy on gender-transition care for inmates, with Justices Alito and Thomas saying they would have blocked it.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision Wednesday, declined to block a lower-court order preserving a federal Bureau of Prisons policy that allows federal funds to support gender-transition care for prisoners, according to reporting from The Center Square.
The majority justices did not block the order in Trump v. Kingdom, a case challenging the Bureau of Prisons policy that allows prisoners access to transgender procedures. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would not have blocked the lower court’s order.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed executive orders directing that biological sex be treated as a determining factor in federal administrative cases. The administration then sought to prevent federal money from going to transgender surgeries for prisoners.
Approximately 1,000 federal prisoners identify as transgender, according to the Justice Department. Lawyers for the inmates argued the policy reversal was arbitrary and capricious, ending a longstanding practice of providing hormone therapy and social-transition accommodations based on individual assessments of clinical need.
Competing arguments
Lawyers for the transgender inmates told the court that the board’s sudden reversal of its own policy was arbitrary and capricious, with effects for civil rights protections. The Trump administration argued that federal authorities had determined sex-trait modification surgeries and hormone therapy were not proper treatments for gender dysphoria, and that the procedures raised security and prison-administration concerns that outweighed their limited benefits, according to the filing.
The high court will not hear or intervene in the case this term, and the justices have no plans to take up cases on transgender issues in the upcoming term. In June, the justices ruled in favor of state bans on biological men competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
Reporting based on coverage by The Center Square.
