Trump administration seeks Supreme Court nod for prison gender-care curbs

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce, for now, restrictions on gender-affirming care in federal prisons, filing an emergency appeal after lower courts blocked the policy from taking immediate effect.

The policy, adopted following an executive order by President Donald Trump, curbs surgeries, hormone treatments and social accommodations such as wigs, while permitting mental health therapy to continue. The executive order directed the Bureau of Prisons to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds are not spent "for the purpose of conforming an inmate's appearance to that of the opposite sex."

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ordered the government to keep providing gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy. The administration contends the policy was properly adopted and that the judge exceeded his authority. It has asked the high court to freeze Lamberth's order while the lawsuit proceeds.

In its filing, the government said the Bureau of Prisons had "determined that sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions in general, and social accommodations could no longer be justified as treatment for gender dysphoria." The agency said in 2025 that it was providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates.

Lamberth, a Washington-based judge nominated by President Ronald Reagan, noted that the bureau does not dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. A divided appeals court panel left his order in place.

Attorneys for the inmates from the ACLU described the policy as "a direct threat to the well-being of transgender people in federal custody and an open violation of their fundamental rights," arguing that withholding necessary gender-affirming healthcare amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court has previously upheld state laws banning certain medical treatments for transgender youth and restricting sports participation by transgender athletes in women's sports. It has also issued shorter-term decisions allowing the Trump administration to proceed for now with other policies rolling back protections for transgender people serving in the military and holding a passport consistent with their gender identity.