Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to restrict some medical treatments for transgender inmates

Updated on: October 21, 2026 / 11:35 AM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday left intact a lower court decision that blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new Bureau of Prisons policy that would end certain medical interventions for transgender inmates.

In an unsigned, one-line order, the high court rejected an emergency appeal from the Justice Department asking it to freeze the district court order and revive the new rules. 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.

The Trump administration sought the Supreme Court's intervention in the dispute last month and argued that the new policy for transgender inmates is needed to "maintain institutional security."

But lawyers for a transgender woman and two transgender men in federal prisons who challenged the rules said the Bureau of Prisons has provided hormone treatment to people with gender dysphoria since 1992. They said that the new policy required the end of treatment for nearly 1,000 inmates in the bureau's…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/