A U.S. federal judge has blocked the Trump Administration from forcibly transferring transgender women in federal custody to men’s prisons, ruling that the move likely violates their constitutional rights and would expose them to serious harm.
Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day back in office, bars federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities, eliminates gender-affirming care in federal prisons and mandates that housing placements be based strictly on sex assigned at birth.
Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction to protect incarcerated transgender women from imminent transfer. In his order, Lamberth said that the government had failed to justify its actions.
The judge wrote: “Summarily removing the possibility of housing the plaintiffs in a women’s facility, when that was determined to be the appropriate facility under the existing constitutional and statutory regime, demonstrates a likelihood of success on the merits of the plaintiffs’ Eighth Amendment claim.”
The judge also emphasized that the dangers these women faced extended beyond physical violence. The mere act of placing them in a men’s prison “will exacerbate the symptoms of their gender dysphoria, even if they are not subject to physical or sexual violence in their new facility."
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