The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to reverse orders blocking its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender federal inmates, arguing it is needed for prison security. The case involves three inmates whose prescribed hormone treatments were suspended.
Kingdom v. Trump was brought by two trans men and one trans woman diagnosed with gender dysphoria by Bureau of Prisons medical providers and prescribed hormone therapy. Court filings say the woman, whose injections had been prescribed since 2016, experienced anxiety, hopelessness, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts after treatment stopped. The men said they feared their menstrual cycles would return.
About 20 trans women were in federal women’s facilities, while roughly 2,200 other trans inmates were held in facilities matching their sex at birth, according to figures cited from the Bureau of Prisons. Judge Royce Lamberth said the administration had not seriously explained how the care threatened security. The government argues courts should defer to prison officials’ expertise; the inmates’ lawyers say withholding medically necessary care violates their constitutional rights.
