Judge Orders Trump Admin To Restart Taxpayer-Funded Trans Procedures In Prisons

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a sweeping block of President Donald Trump’s order to stop taxpayer-funded transgender procedures for prisoners.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of Washington, D.C., granted class-action status to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of over 1,000 federal prison inmates who are taking advantage of taxpayer-funded prison systems to finance clothing, hormones, and other expenses.

“In light of the plaintiffs’ largely personal motives for undergoing gender-affirming care, neither the BOP nor the Executive Order provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention,” Lamberth wrote in a 36-page ruling.

“[N]othing in the thin record before the Court suggests that either the BOP or the President consciously took stock of — much less studied — the potentially debilitating effects that the new policies could have on transgender inmates before the implementing memoranda came into force,” Lamberth added.

The ruling is the latest example of a federal judge issuing a ruling the effect of which expands far beyond the scope of the case at hand. The ACLU lawsuit was brought on behalf of just three transgender-identifying prisoners before the court allowed it class-action status.

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The White House said the “decision allowing transgender women, aka MEN, in women’s prisons fundamentally makes women less safe and ignores the biological truth that there are only two genders. The Trump administration looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue in court,” according to Fox News.

Trump issued an executive order on January 20 setting the administration’s official stance of recognizing only two genders, male and female, and rejecting “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex.”

“The Attorney General shall ensure that the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex,” the order says in part.

The courts have emerged as a major venue for opponents of Trump’s agenda to stifle the administration. Last week, a court interfered in the administration’s ongoing battle with Harvard University, temporarily blocking the Department of Homeland Security from freezing new international enrollments at the Ivy League school.