Judge Blocks Trump’s Order to Transfer Men Who Identify as Women to Male Prisons

Undated file photo shows a barbed wire fence outside inmate housing at a correctional facility in New York. Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo

A judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order, which mandated that transgender inmates who identify as women be housed in male prisons and that the government cease funding their access to hormone therapy.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington granted the temporary restraining order at the request of three anonymous transgender inmates who filed a lawsuit against Trump’s executive action.

Lamberth found the three would likely succeed in arguing the order violates the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Trump’s Jan. 20 order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” requires the attorney general and the Homeland Security secretary to ensure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.”

The order states that the attorney general must ensure the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) revises its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent on “any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.” It also states that it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes only: male and female.

“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order states.

Lamberth said that the plaintiffs in the Washington case presented evidence, including various government reports and regulations, recognizing that transgender inmates are at “a significantly elevated risk of physical and sexual violence relative to other inmates” when housed in a facility corresponding to their biological sex, the judge wrote in his ruling.

The plaintiffs also claim that being in a male prison alone will exacerbate the symptoms of their gender dysphoria.

The inmates also presented evidence from a physician explaining that having no access to medications to treat gender dysphoria could cause “numerous and severe symptoms,” Lamberth wrote.

“It is, of course, possible that further briefing of the constitutional issues at the center of this dispute, or factual discovery, will eventually yield a different outcome,” Lamberth concluded. “But the plaintiffs, through their largely undisputed factual allegations and proffered affidavits, have met their burden to show a likelihood of success on the merits.”

Lamberth declined to reach a verdict regarding the inmates’ other arguments that the order violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has defended the order by arguing that it has broad authority to make decisions regarding the placement of inmates and an interest in protecting inmates’ privacy and security.

Lamberth dismissed that claim, however, writing in his order that public interest in seeing the plaintiffs relocated immediately to male facilities is “slight at best.”

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Lamberth’s order comes after a federal judge in Boston last week blocked prison officials from transferring a biologically male inmate who identifies as a woman to a men’s facility. In that case, the ruling only applied to the specific inmate who had challenged Trump’s executive order.

In contrast, Tuesday’s ruling in Washington applies to all 16 transgender women currently housed in federal women’s prisons.

About 2,230 transgender inmates are housed in federal custodial facilities and halfway houses across the United States, according to the DOJ. About two-thirds of them, 1,506, are biological males who identify as females; the majority of whom are housed in men’s prisons.

The Epoch Times has contacted the DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons for comment.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.