Trump Asks Supreme Court To Restore Restrictions On Transgender Inmate Treatments

Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow the Bureau of Prisons to enforce restrictions on medical interventions and social accommodations for transgender federal inmates while a legal challenge continues.

The Justice Department's emergency request follows a lower court order blocking the policy for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Under the Bureau of Prisons policy, inmates would continue to have access to mental health services, but the government would not provide hormone therapy, surgeries or accommodations such as chest binders, wigs and breast padding.

The legal fight began after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Bureau of Prisons to revise its policies and prohibit federal funds from being spent on medical procedures, treatments or drugs intended to make an inmate's appearance conform to the opposite sex.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked the new Bureau of Prisons policy in June, finding in part that it had been "reverse engineered" to carry out Trump's executive order. Lamberth ordered the government to continue providing previously available treatments to affected inmates.

The Justice Department appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined earlier this month to let the administration enforce the policy while the case proceeds.

The administration is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

In its emergency filing, the Justice Department accused the district court of "substituting its own policy judgment for that of the agency."

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that prison officials determined the restrictions were "necessary to maintain institutional security" and said the lower court's ruling prevents the executive branch from carrying out its chosen policy.