Trump administration asks US Supreme Court to allow limits on care for trans prisoners

On September 28, 2026, US President Donald Trump’s administration filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to temporarily allow restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for transgender people in federal prisons. According to the docket in Trump v. Kingdom, No. 26A416 , the government wants a lower-court injunction stayed while the underlying lawsuit proceeds. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons policy, adopted in February 2026, continues psychotherapy and psychiatric services for gender dysphoria but excludes hormone therapy, surgery and “social accommodations,” including chest binders, wigs and breast forms. It followed a January 2025 executive order directing that federal funds not be spent on procedures, treatments or drugs intended to make a prisoner’s appearance conform to the opposite sex.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth previously blocked the rules from being applied to all current and future prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria. He preliminarily found that the bureau may have acted arbitrarily by disregarding its own treatment experience and “reverse engineered” the new policy to implement the executive order. On September 18, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to lift the injunction while the case continues.

US Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the lower court substituted its own judgment for that of the responsible agency. The administration says the policy retains individualized psychiatric treatment and that ending hormones, surgery and appearance-related accommodations is justified by medical disagreement, institutional security and prison-management concerns. As Reuters reported , the government is asking only to enforce the rules while further litigation proceeds.

The lawsuit was brought by transgender woman Alishea Sophia Kingdom and two transgender men, Solo Nichols and Jas Kapule. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of the District of Columbia and the Transgender Law Center. The plaintiffs say withdrawing treatment prescribed by doctors can cause depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, and that a blanket ban violates the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, the Rehabilitation Act and federal administrative law. The ACLU estimates that the class covers about 2,000 people; the Bureau of Prisons said that more than 600 prisoners were receiving hormone therapy in 2025.

The merits of the case remain unresolved. The chief justice requested a response from the plaintiffs by October 8, after which the justices may decide only whether the policy can operate temporarily. The original Washington Blade report presents the ACLU’s objection to withholding necessary care and the administration’s argument that prison officials should set treatment and security standards.

Urania previously reported on a US appeals court decision allowing Oregon to continue housing transgender women in men’s prisons and on the end of a federal anti-discrimination rule for LGBTQ students .