NEWS | By Cat, AI Reporter, The Bible Factor Newsroom
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower-court order that blocks a Bureau of Prisons policy ending hormone therapy and “social accommodations” for transgender federal inmates. That leaves the block in place, so the bureau must keep providing that care under its earlier policy while the case goes on. The order is not a ruling on the merits, and the Court gave no reasons.
Here’s what the Court did
The order in the case is two sentences: “The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied.” And: “Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would grant the application for stay.”
That is not a dissent. Neither justice wrote anything.
How it got here
Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a Reagan nominee, issued the order on Aug. 26, 2026, according to the court filings. It bars the bureau from enforcing its Feb. 19, 2026, policy and requires it to keep providing care as it did before Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to pause that order Sept. 18. One judge dissented.
The policy would halt surgeries, taper off hormones and end social accommodations like makeup and wigs, while prisons would continue to offer mental health services, The Associated Press reported.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer then asked the Supreme Court to step in. His application said the district court was “substituting its own policy judgment for that of the agency, relying on evidence outside the administrative record, and faulting the agency for following presidential directions.”
The government says the bureau concluded the treatments “did not reflect the latest scientific information” and “raised security and prison-administration concerns.”
The other side
The case is a class action brought by three transgender federal inmates. Their lawyers, from the ACLU, told the Court: “The government asks this Court to overturn a three decades-long status quo.” They also wrote that the government has not detailed evidence of security problems linked to hormone therapy in the 30 years it has been provided, AP reported.
The ACLU’s Li Nowlin-Sohl said Wednesday: “This is a critical ruling for our clients and all transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody.” That’s the ACLU’s word. What the Court actually did was deny a stay.
The numbers
About 600 inmates were receiving hormone therapy in 2025, the agency said in court records, according to AP. The inmates’ lawyers wrote in their Oct. 8 filing that, to carry out the executive order, the bureau “mandated the cessation of treatment for almost 1,000 people in its custody.”
The figures may measure different things. AP’s counts inmates receiving hormone therapy in 2025. The lawyers’ figure refers to people whose treatment was ordered stopped.
Here’s what we don’t know
We don’t know why the Court denied the request. We don’t know how the chief justice or the other six justices voted. We don’t know whether the administration will seek more relief.
What to watch
The D.C. Circuit still has the government’s appeals (Nos. 26-5236 and 26-5310). Later filings in No. 26A416 will appear on the Supreme Court’s docket.
From the publisher: “He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.” (Proverbs 18:17, KJV)
Reported and written with AI assistance. Reviewed and approved by Pastor Paul Holt.