<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Trump administration requested the Supreme Court on September 28, 2026, to lift a lower court’s order that prevents a new regulation for federal prisons, which would stop providing inmates with transgender surgeries and procedures.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an emergency petition after a federal district court blocked a policy from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that was set to take effect in February 2026. This policy would end transgender surgeries as part of treatment for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria, while still allowing mental health treatment options. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the Supreme Court should halt the lower court’s order, stating that the policy was lawfully enacted under the BOP’s rulemaking authority.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sauer explained that the BOP changed its policy based on “the latest scientific information” and “security and prison-administration concerns that outweighed whatever limited benefits they had.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Without meaningfully engaging with either BOP’s reasoning or the administrative record, the district court prohibited BOP from applying its 2026 policy to any inmate who is or will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” Sauer wrote, noting that the lower court had “radically” departed “from the significant deference that BOP is due” in its policymaking.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sauer urged the Supreme Court to allow the Trump administration to enact the February 2026 policy while litigation continues, emphasizing the importance of allowing the federal government to advance its policies and priorities.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“In nullifying BOP’s exercise of its statutorily conferred authority to adopt a policy that prison administrators have determined is necessary to maintain institutional security, the court’s order causes irreparable harm to the government and to the public,” Sauer stated in the petition. “Indeed, this Court has emphasized the importance of allowing politically accountable officials to make decisions about the permissible forms of treatment for gender dysphoria, and the need for such policymaking ‘flexibility’ is even greater in the context of prison administration.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Supreme Court has not set a timeline for when it will rule on this emergency request from the DOJ.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Trump administration has faced several legal challenges regarding its policies aimed at restricting transgender surgeries and similar efforts implemented under previous administrations. One ongoing legal battle involves the policy restricting the gender on a person’s passport to their biological sex.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Supreme Court allowed this policy to go into effect pending litigation last year, but must now decide whether to take up the case for full arguments after the Trump administration experienced losses in both federal district and appeals courts. The high court could decide on whether to take up the case as soon as later this fall.</p>