A U.S. District Judge has blocked a controversial policy by former President Donald Trump’s administration that would have moved transgender women to men’s prisons and ended their gender-affirming medical care.
On Tuesday, Judge Royce Lamberth temporarily halted the executive order signed by Trump on his first day back in office in January. Lamberth ruled that three transgender women who sued the government are likely to succeed in their claim that the policy is unconstitutional.
This marks the second time a federal court has sided with LGBTQ rights groups in blocking the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from enforcing the policy. Lamberth’s decision applies to all 16 transgender women currently housed in federal women’s prisons. It goes further than a previous ruling from January 26, which blocked the transfer of one transgender woman to a men’s facility.
The Justice Department, which defended Trump’s administration in court, declined to comment. The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment.
The three transgender women who filed the case argued that transferring them to men’s prisons would expose them to violence and sexual assault, violating the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Justice Department lawyer John Robinson argued that the Bureau of Prisons has the authority to determine inmate placements. However, Judge Lamberth noted that the government did not dispute that transgender individuals are at a higher risk of harm in men’s facilities.
Trump’s executive order, which aimed to limit the federal government’s recognition of gender identity to biological sex, would have required transgender women to be housed in men’s prisons and eliminated funding for their gender-affirming care. Before Trump’s policy, the Bureau of Prisons followed guidelines set under President Joe Biden, which took into account an inmate’s gender identity when determining housing.
About 2,230 transgender individuals are incarcerated in federal prisons, with around two-thirds, or 1,506, being transgender women—many of whom are housed in men’s prisons.
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