Technology and Scienceupdated 1h ago3 min read
Supreme Court Leaves Block on Trump Administration Ending Trans Inmates’ Medical Care
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Supreme Court leaves in place injunction blocking policy ending transgender inmates' medical care. Court rejects emergency bid to revive restrictions and apply the policy.
Save coverage image
Where the coverage agrees
Directory totals describe our source library, not outlets checked for this story.
13 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Toledo Fire & Rescue Orders Evacuations, Shelter-In-Place After Glycidyl Methacrylate Release →
Court keeps care in place
The Supreme Court on Wednesday left intact a lower court decision blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a new Bureau of Prisons policy that would end certain medical interventions for transgender inmates. The policy would cut off surgical and hormone therapy treatments, as well as social accommodations, for inmates who have been or will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have allowed the Trump administration to enforce the change, while the court rejected an emergency appeal from the Justice Department seeking to freeze the district court order and revive the new rules.
Lawyers for a transgender woman and two transgender men in federal prisons argued that the Bureau of Prisons has provided hormone treatment to people with gender dysphoria since 1992 and said the new policy required the end of treatment for nearly 1,000 inmates in the bureau's custody. Li Nowlin-Sohl, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Supreme Court's decision is critical, adding, "The denial of medically necessary health care, including gender-affirming health care, to people in prison is a violation of their fundamental constitutional rights,".
Security rationale disputed
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the district court's decision "prevents the application of the Executive's chosen policy" on a broad basis.
Sauer defended the legality of the policy ending medical treatments for transgender inmates and said the Bureau of Prisons "seasonably considered its prior experience" in determining that such interventions are not medically necessary.
The Bureau of Prisons memo accompanying the February policy cited the need to "reflect treatment for gender dysphoria that is more aligned with the latest scientific information" and said the change accounted for "complex security and administration concerns in the correctional environment."
The challengers argued the Trump administration failed to put forth any evidence indicating whether healthcare providers for the Bureau of Prisons found the now-restricted medical treatments to be effective, ineffective or harmful.
NPR reported that the Supreme Court decision offered no explanation and that it simply read, "The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied."
What happens next
The Supreme Court ruling kept in place lower-court orders preventing the Bureau of Prisons from implementing the February policy while the legal battle continues.
The policy would have required inmates receiving hormone treatments to be put on a tapering plan that would eventually lead to a discontinuation of the interventions, and it would have ended social accommodations such as breast padding, binders, wigs and makeup.
In June, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an order preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the February policy and required the Bureau of Prisons to continue providing medical interventions and social accommodations to a class of inmates with gender dysphoria.
Lamberth wrote, "The court simply concludes that the government violated [federal law] when it issued a new policy restricting the provision of gender-affirming care to inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria."
SCOTUSblog said the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request in a one-sentence order and that it left in place the federal judge's order prohibiting the Federal Bureau of Prisons from enforcing a new policy that would prevent hormone therapy and "social accommodations" such as makeup, wigs, and padding.