The Trump administration on Monday morning asked the Supreme Court to block an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that bars the Federal Bureau of Prisons from enforcing a new policy on healthcare for transgender inmates. Specifically, in a reversal of the prior policy, the new policy would prohibit transgender inmates from obtaining gender-transition surgeries, hormone therapy, and “social accommodations” (such as makeup, wigs, and padding).
The policy, which was adopted in February 2026, was the successor to a policy that was adopted in February 2025 to implement an executive order signed by President Donald Trump shortly after his second inauguration. That order instructed the attorney general to “ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
When it adopted the February 2026 policy, which the BOP said that it did “independently of [the] Executive Order,” the BOP also provided an extensive administrative record and a 43-page memorandum in which it indicated that its change in policy was due to, among other things, “the latest scientific information,” because earlier policies had relied on recommendations by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health – a group, it said, whose standards had been deemed “unreliable” and “unpersuasive” by prison administrators. Moreover, the BOP said, it was concerned that providing access to gender-affirming care could subject transgender prisoners to “attacks,” “raise fairness concerns,” and “breed resentment among other inmates.”
Three transgender inmates sought to file a class action lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. The case has a complicated procedural history, but Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued the most recent order barring the BOP from implementing its 2026 policy on Aug. 26, and a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turned down the government’s request to pause Lamberth’s order.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer came to the Supreme Court on Monday morning, asking the justices to intervene. Sauer emphasized that in blocking the policy, the district court “substitute[d] its own policy judgment for that of the” BOP, “rel[ied] on evidence outside the administrative record, and fault[ed] the agency for following presidential directions.” Moreover, he added, Lamberth “also denied prison administrators the substantial deference they are due.”
If Lamberth’s order is not put on hold, Sauer continued, the government will suffer permanent harm – another factor that courts continue in deciding whether to award emergency relief – because it “interferes with” prison “administrators’ ‘expert judgment’ on how best to operate federal correctional facilities across the Nation.”
