LGBTQ Rights protesters outside of the Supreme Court. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a Trump-Vance administration policy that would have ended gender-affirming care for prisoners.
On Oct. 21, the justices rejected an emergency application filed by the administration that would have allowed the Bureau of Prisons to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons.
Three prisoners, Alishea Kingdom, Jas Kapule and Solo Nichols, have said they had been receiving hormone therapy for years as inmates and challenged the sudden policy change. They argued that the abrupt change to decades of policy would end treatment for nearly 1,000 people in custody. The assertion of security concerns within prisons, the American Civil Liberties Union told the Supreme Court, was odd “given that BOP has not pointed to a single security incident relating to its provision of this treatment over the past 30 years.”
According to the application, President Donald Trump’s order called on the Bureau of Prisons to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, would have allowed the policy to be enforced but ultimately did not join the majority, marking a rare judicial win for trans people at the nation’s highest court.
This decision is in line with other anti-trans actions taken by the White House regarding inmate rights. In May, the Washington Blade first reported on letters from congressional Democrats condemning changes to official BOP policy regarding trans inmates to bring it in line with Trump’s Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The policy would require BOP staff to “refer to individuals by their legal name or pronouns corresponding to their biological sex,” ban the use of funds for any “items that align with transgender ideology,” and suspend clothing accommodations, pat-search accommodations, and support programs offered to trans individuals.
The BOP responded to the Blade’s request for additional information about its policy change, but BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy said the updated policy is “rooted in medical guidance” and “data-driven decision making,” despite the guidance running counter to what most doctors who specialize in trans health care would recommend.
In June, the court upheld state bans on trans athletes participating in women’s and girls’ sports. A year earlier, the court upheld state laws banning gender-transition treatments for trans youth.
The court has also allowed Trump to implement a ban on trans people serving in the military.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson sent a statement to the Blade following the court’s decision.
“Today, trans people in federal prisons can keep getting the care they need. Denying access to critical medical care for incarcerated people simply because they are trans is discriminatory, cruel and flies in the face of our Eighth Amendment protections,” Robinson said via email. “Trump and MAGA extremists are obsessed with targeting our community and undermining access to essential healthcare, defying the recommendations of every major medical association in the country. This decision protects incarcerated trans people from the administration’s attempt to steamroll over constitutional rights for now, but the fight to uphold the dignity and respect our community deserves is far from over.”
The Blade reached out to the White House for a response on the Supreme Court’s ruling but did not hear back by publication time.
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