The Supreme Court thwarted the Trump administration on Wednesday from at once refusing certain gender-transition medical treatments for transgender inmates at federal prisons.
Two of the justices, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas, said they would have granted the administration’s emergency request to stop the treatments.
Still, according to a story by Newsmax, the decision leaves in place a lower-court block on the policy. It was accepted after an executive order from President Donald Trump.
Previously, the Supreme Court has allowed other policies for transgender people to move ahead for now, including restrictions on military service and passport sex markers.
Trump’s order called on the Bureau of Prisons to amend its medical care guidelines so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
The novel Trump policy would stop surgeries, taper off hormones and terminate social accommodations like makeup and wigs. Nevertheless, prisons would keep offering mental health services.
However, the lawyers for transgender prisoners challenged the policy in court and U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered treatments to carry on. Nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, Lamberth said that gender dysphoria, left without treatment, can cause keen side effects like depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
But the Trump administration countered by appealing, contending that treatments raised security concerns and “could no longer be justified.” A divided appeals court panel left the order in place.
