A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its new prison policy that would require transgender inmates to be housed based on their biological sex rather than their gender identity.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an 11-page ruling on Tuesday granting a temporary restraining order in favor of three transgender inmates who are housed in women’s federal prisons. The ruling prevents prison officials from transferring them to men’s facilities or restricting their access to medical care while the legal challenge moves forward.
The policy, enacted through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, mandates that transgender inmates be housed in facilities that correspond to their biological sex. It also bars the federal Bureau of Prisons from providing gender-related treatments.
The three inmates, who identify as women but were born biologically male, 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. Their attorney, Jennifer Levi, presented these arguments during a court hearing on Tuesday.
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.
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The Justice Department urged against moving forward with the restraining order, arguing 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.
In a separate case relating to the same directive, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston issued a temporary restraining order on Jan. 26 preventing federal prison officials from transferring a transgender inmate, who identifies as a woman but is biologically male, to a men’s facility. The judge also mandated that the inmate continue receiving hormone therapy during the legal proceedings.
