Key facts
- Supreme Court denied Justice Department's emergency request to enforce policy restricting gender-affirming care for transgender inmates.
- Policy prohibits medical, surgical treatments and social accommodations for gender alignment.
- Federal Bureau of Prisons policy reversal follows prior procedures treating gender dysphoria with hormones since 1992.
- Judge Royce Lamberth blocked restrictions in June, calling policy 'arbitrary and capricious'.
- Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision.
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration to immediately enforce a policy that would restrict gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons. The denial, which came with dissents from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, upholds a federal judge's order blocking the Federal Bureau of Prisons from implementing the measure while a broader legal challenge proceeds. The policy, issued in February, prohibits medical and surgical treatments as well as social accommodations aimed at aligning an inmate's appearance with their gender identity, reversing prior procedures that had allowed for hormone treatments since at least 1992. Three transgender inmates filed a class action lawsuit, arguing the restrictions would cause immediate and catastrophic harm, including increased depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.