Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid to Cut Off Care for Transgender Federal Inmates

The Supreme Court on Oct. 21, 2026, denied the Trump administration's emergency application to let the Bureau of Prisons enforce Program Statement 5260.01, a 2026 policy that would end hormone therapy, surgery and other gender-affirming care for transgender people in federal prisons. The order leaves in place a district court's preliminary injunction issued in the class action Kingdom v. Trump, brought on behalf of roughly 1,000 to 2,000 transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody, after the D.C. Circuit had already declined to stay the injunction. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were reported to have dissented.

The district court had found the administration failed to show the care caused security problems and that the policy appeared designed to carry out Trump's 2025 executive order on gender policy. ACLU attorneys representing the plaintiffs called the outcome "a critical ruling for our clients and all transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody," saying the Court made clear the Bureau cannot deny the care while the government's appeal proceeds.

The administration's appeal of the underlying injunction remains pending before the D.C. Circuit; the Supreme Court's order did not reach the merits of the case.