DOJ asks Supreme Court to allow policy ending medical care for transgender inmates

Washington — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to revive for now a Bureau of Prisons policy cutting off medical interventions and social accommodations for transgender inmates.

The Justice Department's emergency appeal stems from a federal district court order issued last month that continued to prohibit the Bureau of Prisons from enforcing its new rules against any inmate who is or will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

The judge overseeing a challenge to the policy, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, ordered the Trump administration to continue providing medical care to a class of transgender inmates.

A group of inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria filed a lawsuit last year after President Trump issued an executive order at the start of his second term that prohibited the use of federal funds for medical procedures or treatments for transgender inmates within the federal Bureau of Prisons system. On the heels of that directive, the bureau issued new guidance that prohibited staff from granting requests for clothing accommodations for those inmates and barred the use of federal dollars for medical interventions.

The Bureau of Prisons then issued a new policy in February that it said was independent of Mr. Trump's executive order. Under those rules, the agency would continue providing mental health services for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but would not provide surgeries, hormone therapy or social accommodations, like chest binders, wigs or breast padding, to address gender dysphoria.

Lamberth agreed to block the new rules in June and ordered the Bureau of Prisons to continue providing medical treatments to transgender inmates. The judge ruled in part that the administration's new policy was "reverse engineered" to implement Mr. Trump's executive order. He then issued an order last month continuing to block enforcement of the rules.

The Justice Department appealed. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to restore the policy while proceedings moved forward.

In its request for emergency relief to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration accused the district court of "substituting its own policy judgment for that of the agency." The Bureau of Prisons, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said, determined its policy on medical treatments for transgender inmates was "necessary to maintain institutional security," and he warned that the district court's decision "nullifies" that judgment. 

Sauer said the lower court order "prevents the application of the Executive's chosen policy" on a broad basis.

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