The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a loss on its emergency docket on Wednesday, declining to lift a lower court’s block on a new regulation for federal prisons that would stop providing inmates with transgender surgeries and procedures.
The high court ruled 7-2 against granting the Department of Justice’s emergency petition to allow the policy to go into effect while litigation continues. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have lifted the lower court’s injunction. The brief order did not include any explanation from either the majority or the dissent.
The February 2026 policy from the Federal Bureau of Prisons ends transgender surgeries as part of treatment for inmates suffering from gender dysphoria, while keeping mental health treatment options available. The Trump administration enacted the policy after a previous version, which had similar goals of removing surgeries as part of the treatment options for inmates with gender dysphoria, was held up in federal court. The February 2026 policy also faced a lawsuit, with a federal district court halting the policy in June while litigation continued. A divided federal appeals court declined to lift that injunction in September.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed the emergency petition to the Supreme Court on Sept. 28, arguing the policy was lawfully enacted under the BOP’s rulemaking authority.
“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.
The Supreme Court rejected the DOJ’s petition nearly a month later, without providing an explanation. The lawsuit will continue to work its way through the lower court, and could return to the Supreme Court on its regular merits docket, but the policy will be blocked in the interim while that process plays out.
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The Trump administration has had a largely positive record on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, but the justices have handed some high-profile losses over its emergency petitions. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to lift a lower court’s block on the administration’s new Postal Service mail ballot rule ahead of the midterm elections.
The recent wins by the administration on the high court’s emergency docket have included allowing a rule expanding who is entitled to favorable ad rates for campaign advertisements to go into effect for the midterm elections, along with allowing third-country deportations to go forward ahead of full merits arguments on the policy in December.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
