US Supreme Court Keeps Transgender Prisoners’ Care Protections in Place for Now
On October 21, 2026, the US Supreme Court in Washington denied an emergency request by President Donald Trump’s administration in a dispute over treatment for transgender people in federal prisons. Its order in Trump v. Kingdom leaves in place a preliminary injunction against new rules that would deprive patients of hormone therapy and other care for gender dysphoria.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the administration’s request.
The dispute concerns Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rules adopted in February 2026 following Trump’s January 2025 executive order. For gender dysphoria, they retained psychotherapy and psychiatric care but excluded hormone therapy, surgery and social accommodations, such as clothing appropriate to a person’s gender identity. People already receiving hormones would have their treatment gradually discontinued.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington blocked the rules on June 17, 2026, and renewed the preliminary injunction on August 26. According to lower-court documents, the court preliminarily found that the bureau may have acted arbitrarily by failing to consider its own years of experience providing such care. The injunction preserves the previous treatment framework for prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria while litigation continues.
In an October 9 reply to the Supreme Court, administration lawyers argued that ending hormones, surgery and social accommodations was justified by insufficient medical evidence, institutional security and prison-management concerns. They also argued that the courts had substituted their judgment for the responsible agency’s and exceeded the limits of permissible intervention.
Three incarcerated people filed the lawsuit in March 2025. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its District of Columbia affiliate and the human rights organization Transgender Law Center. In an ACLU statement, the plaintiffs’ lawyers described the denial as important for preserving care prescribed by doctors and said that withholding necessary treatment violates prisoners’ constitutional rights.
Uránia previously reported on the Trump administration’s September 28 application to the Supreme Court.
