Supreme Court Blocks Trump's Medical Care Rules for Transgender Prisoners

The Supreme Court said no on Wednesday to the Trump administration's request to immediately stop medical treatments for transgender people in federal prisons. The court's decision keeps in place a lower court's order that said the treatments must continue. President Donald Trump had signed an executive order asking federal prisons to change how they handle medical care for transgender inmates.

Trump's order told the Bureau of Prisons, which runs federal prisons, to stop using government money to help an inmate's body look like the opposite sex. Under the new rules, surgeries would stop, hormone treatments would slowly be ended, and things like makeup and wigs would no longer be allowed. Mental health services, however, would still be available to transgender inmates.

Lawyers for transgender inmates took the case to court to fight the new policy. A federal judge named Royce Lamberth ordered the treatments to keep going. Judge Lamberth pointed out that leaving gender dysphoria untreated can lead to serious problems like depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Gender dysphoria is the distress a person feels when their gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

The Trump administration appealed the judge's decision, which means they asked a higher court to change it. They said the treatments raised safety concerns inside prisons and could no longer be justified. But a divided group of appeals court judges left the original order in place, meaning treatments had to continue.

Court records show that about 600 inmates were receiving hormone therapy in 2025. Their lawyers argued that suddenly stopping these treatments would seriously harm the inmates' bodies and mental health. They also noted that the government had not shown any evidence that hormone therapy caused safety problems in prisons during the 30 years it had been provided.

The Supreme Court's short order did not explain exactly why the justices made their choice. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said they would have allowed the Trump administration's policy to take effect while the legal fight continued. The court has let some other Trump policies on transgender issues move forward, such as rules about transgender people serving in the military and rules about gender markers on passports.