The Trump administration on September 28 filed an emergency appeal asking the US Supreme Court to freeze a lower court's order blocking its prison policy on transgender inmates.

The Bureau of Prisons policy, issued under an executive order, denies transgender inmates access to hormone therapies, surgeries and what it calls 'social accommodations'. The bureau still permits psychotherapy and psychiatry services, but the order bars the use of federal funds 'for the purpose of conforming an inmate's appearance to that of the opposite sex'. The bureau gave hormones to more than 600 inmates in 2025.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth had blocked the policy, and an appeals panel left that injunction in place, prompting the Justice Department's emergency application to the Supreme Court.

The administration argues the policy protects the integrity of the federal prison system and the proper use of taxpayer money. Civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, call the denial of gender-affirming care cruel and unusual punishment and say it endangers inmates' health.

The Supreme Court has not yet acted on the emergency request. Its decision will set the course for how federal prisons treat transgender inmates while the underlying legal challenge plays out.