SCOTUS Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin From Denying Gender-Transition Treatments To Federal Detainees

Every once in a while, the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court gives us a rare showing of integrity and decency by ruling against President Donald Trump and his bid to win the right-wing’s culture war, since he doesn’t seem to be able to win any actual wars.

On Wednesday, the court prevented the Trump administration from immediately denying certain gender-transition medical treatments for transgender inmates at federal prisons, according to the New York Times, which noted that in this unsigned, unexplained order, the only two justices who dissented were the two who will always vote on the side of Trump and MAGA, no matter what: justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas.

From the Times:

Under President Trump, the Bureau of Prisons adopted new policies that would prohibit inmates from receiving the care. Three transgender people in federal custody initially challenged the new rules. All three had previously been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by prison medical officials and had been prescribed treatments.

The ruling means that, for now, as many as 1,000 federal prisoners who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria will continue to receive gender transition treatments that the Trump administration has attempted to restrict.

The lawsuit argued that the administration’s change in policy violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The policy has been blocked since June 2025, and the court’s ruling means that block remains in place while litigation about the issue proceeds.

But here’s the real question: why not just leave people alone?

Look, Trump is a bigot. He has shown time and time again that he will turn any conversation into a rant about “Transgender for everyone” and trans women in sports, and he continues to tell this absurd lie about parents dropping their kids off at school and picking them up to find they’ve had sex changes.

His administration also tried to ban trans people from serving in the U.S. military; his DOJ tried to ban trans people from owning guns, based on the ridiculous notion that they’re prone to committing the kind of mass shootings that are overwhelmingly committed by cisgender white men, and the administration has tried to deny minors from receiving gender-related care.

All of this really amounts to one thing: bigots can’t mind their own business.

Of course, it’s one thing when the bigot is just some random guy who works at Jiffy Lube; it’s another thing entirely when the bigot holds the highest office in the nation and has the power to enact his bigotry on a systemic level.

“The attempted denial of medically necessary health care, including gender-affirming health care, to people in prison is a violation of their fundamental constitutional rights,” Li Nowlin-Sohl, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, told the Times.

Hopefully, the courts continue to agree.

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