Trump asks Supreme Court to halt medical care for transgender people in federal prisons

President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday urged the Supreme Court to allow federal prison officials to deny certain types of medical care to transgender inmates, such as surgeries, placing another culture war issue on the high court’s fast-track docket.

The Bureau of Prisons policy that began early in Trump’s second term — and was changed after an initial round of court battles — allows psychotherapy and psychiatric services for inmates with gender dysphoria, but not hormonal therapies, surgeries or “welfare accommodations.”

The appeal reached the conservative Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote, at a time when LGBTQ Americans have faced a series of legal setbacks, including back-to-back rulings in recent years that allowed states to ban transgender care for minors and allowed states to ban transgender athletes from playing on girls’ school sports teams.

Trump has made cracking down on legal victories won by transgender Americans a centerpiece of his 2024 presidential campaign, and his administration, with help from the Supreme Court, has moved to ban transgender people from serving in the military and require that the gender designation on U.S. passports match the traveler’s biological sex.

“The public interest far outweighs any irreparable harm to defendants,” the Justice Department told the Supreme Court in its emergency appeal. “The 2026 policy provides for appropriate and individualized treatment of gender dysphoria, while prohibiting only medically unnecessary interventions. »

In a series of rulings this year, a U.S. district court and federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., blocked Trump’s policy from taking effect in the short term. In a brief order issued earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit concluded that the administration’s policy was likely arbitrary and capricious because the Bureau of Prisons did not “sufficiently” consider “its own experience with gender-affirming care under its prior policy.”

The rushed appeal, which the court will likely decide within weeks, was the latest in a deluge of emergency litigation the administration has filed before the Supreme Court in recent weeks. Judges are already considering a high-profile appeal to deport migrants to countries other than their home countries without giving them a chance to raise human rights concerns.

Over the summer, the court considered Trump-related cases involving mail-in ballots, the White House ballroom and efforts to identify non-citizen voters.