Supreme Court won't let Trump enforce transgender inmate policy for now

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said the administration can't immediately deny gender-affirming care for inmates in federal prisons, a rare loss at the high court for President Donald Trump’s executive orders denying recognition of transgender people.

The court on Oct. 21 declined to allow the administration’s policy to go into effect before a legal challenge plays out.

The order did not include an explanation, which is common for actions on emergency requests.

Two of the court's six conservative justices − Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito − dissented.

Transgender inmates incarcerated at federal correctional institutions in New Jersey, Florida and Minnesota filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the rules.

Under the policy, announced by the Bureau of Prisons in February, transgender inmates can no longer receive surgical or hormonal treatments. They are also not allowed “social accommodations,” such as makeup and wigs.

The Justice Department said the changes “reflect the latest scientific information” about treatments for gender dysphoria and are needed “to maintain institutional security.” The government’s concerns include the potential for turning inmates into targets for attacks, breeding resentment among other inmates and undermining the bureau’s “reasonable practice of refusing to reward threats of self-harm.”

On Trump's first day back in office, he issued an executive order requiring the federal government to only “recognize two sexes, male and female,” declaring “these sexes are not changeable.” 

In June, a federal judge said that he “has no intention of wading into the culture war begin waged against transgender individuals.” Instead, Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., said he was “simply” deciding whether the government followed the correct procedures for issuing new rules – and that it had not.

For example, Lamberth said the Bureau of Prisons cited no evidence that providing gender-affirming care – which the government has done for years – was ineffective for the inmates or posed security risks for the prisons.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit backed Lamberth's ruling in a 2-1 decision.

In an emergency appeal, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that the judge’s “demand for additional evidence” conflicts with the “double deference” that the Bureau of Prisons is due in this context.

Lawyers for the transgender inmates countered that the government hadn’t shown that it would be harmed unless the policy can be immediately implemented. By contrast, the nearly 1,000 affected inmates face a “serious risk of worsening gender dysphoria as well as other mental health symptoms including depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidality,” their lawyers said.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has previously allowed the administration to ban transgender people from the military and to require that passports identify someone by their biological sex at birth.

The court has also said states can ban transgender athletes from participating on female sports teams and can ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court won't let Trump enforce transgender inmate policy for now