A U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C., has issued a temporary restraining order blocking a Trump administration policy that mandates transgender inmates be housed in facilities that correspond to their biological sex. The ruling, issued on Tuesday, prevents prison officials from transferring three transgender inmates who identify as women but were born biologically male to men's facilities or restricting their access to medical care.
The policy, enacted through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, also bars the federal Bureau of Prisons from providing gender-related treatments. The three inmates argued in their lawsuit that the policy violates constitutional protections against sex-based discrimination and subjects them to cruel and unusual punishment by placing them at increased risk of violence and sexual assault.
Judge Royce Lamberth agreed that the inmates could face significant harm if transferred and wrote that they are likely to succeed in their claim that the policy violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Justice Department argued against moving forward with the restraining order, stating that the case was still in its early stages and that the inmates had not been moved. They also stressed that there are only 16 male inmates who identify as women housed in women's facilities. Roughly 2,230 transgender inmates are in facilities that correspond to their biological sex, the Justice Department said in court papers.
This ruling comes after a similar temporary restraining order was issued by a U.S. District Judge in Boston on January 26, preventing federal prison officials from transferring a transgender inmate to a men's facility and mandating that the inmate continue receiving hormone therapy during the legal proceedings.