DOJ Fights to Restore Common-Sense Limits on Costly Transgender Inmate Treatments
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The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court order blocking a Bureau of Prisons policy that responsibly restricts controversial and expensive medical treatments and accommodations for transgender prisoners.
The Justice Department on Monday filed an emergency appeal, seeking Supreme Court intervention to reinstate a Bureau of Prisons policy that rightly limits taxpayer-funded medical procedures and social accommodations for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. This request comes after a federal district court last month overstepped by barring the agency from enforcing the new rules and forcing the continued provision of costly and controversial treatments to transgender prisoners.
The policy, introduced in February, sensibly permits mental-health services but prohibits unnecessary surgeries, hormone therapy, and items such as chest binders, wigs, or breast padding—measures that many believe do not belong in the prison system. The Bureau of Prisons clarified that this policy is separate from President Trump’s earlier executive order, which appropriately barred the use of federal funds for such treatments.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth previously blocked the rules, claiming they were 'reverse engineered' to implement the executive order, and ordered the Bureau to continue providing these disputed medical services. In its Supreme Court filing, Bureau of Prisons Solicitor General D. John Sauer emphasized that the district court’s decision 'prevents the application of the Executive’s chosen policy on a broad basis,' and argued that the policy is 'necessary to maintain institutional security.'