The decision preserves a lower court ruling blocking a federal prison policy that would end hormone therapy.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency request from President Donald Trump’s administration, preventing the implementation of a policy seeking to deny gender-affirming treatment to hundreds of transgender inmates in federal prisons.
RELATED:
Brazil’s Far-Right Deputy-elect Faces Transphobia Complaint After Post Targeting Erika Hilton
The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling blocking the Federal Bureau of Prisons from implementing a directive that would have ended hormone therapy and other types of medical care for transgender people in these correctional facilities.
“The application for a stay presented to the chief justice and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the brief court order states. It adds only that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have supported the Trump administration’s request.
During the summer, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled against the Republican administration’s policy, which has supported measures to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community as part of the culture war promoted by Trump.
All major medical organizations in the US support gender-affirming care. The Trump administration opposes it.https://t.co/my0B4j1dXG
— LGBTQ Nation (@lgbtqnation) October 15, 2026
An appeals court rejected the federal government’s request to suspend the block, an injunction that now remains in place following the Supreme Court’s decision. Meanwhile, litigation over the directive continues.
The “Trump v. Kingdom” case represents the interests of about 1,000 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which estimates that nearly 800 of them have been prescribed hormone therapy.
More than 2,000 inmates in U.S. federal prisons identify as transgender, according to ACLU estimates. The Federal Bureau of Prisons stopped publishing data on transgender individuals after Trump returned to power in 2025 and now records only men and women in the prison system.
In June, the conservative majority (6-3) on the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Trump and upheld state laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s teams in school and college sports, concluding that the laws do not violate the Constitution.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.