US court allows transfer of transgender women to men’s prisons, for now

Signage is seen at the entrance of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

April 17 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday declined to block President Donald Trump’s administration from transferring 18 transgender ​women in federal custody to men’s prisons, but gave a federal judge who said the move was unconstitutional another ‌chance to do so.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said, opens new tab the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ decision last year to transfer the women in line with an executive order by Trump was “the product of deliberate, individualized determinations rather than happenstance.”

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had temporarily blocked the inmates’ transfer last ​year, ruling that housing transgender women in men’s prisons violated their constitutional rights by placing them at substantial risk of harm.

But ​the D.C. Circuit said Lamberth had not explained how each of the 18 plaintiffs was particularly vulnerable to violence ⁠or abuse, and sent the case back to the judge for further proceedings.

The court “remains free to consider, as it deems appropriate, whether plaintiffs ​may be entitled to relief on … grounds that may be supported by further findings of fact and analysis,” Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote, joined ​by Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan. Both judges are appointees of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, saying that the plaintiffs were required to file internal grievances with the Bureau of Prisons before suing and had failed to do so. He accused his colleagues of concocting a reason to send the case ​back to Lamberth “to repackage relief.” Randolph was appointed by Republican former President George H.W. Bush.
The U.S. Department of Justice and GLAD Law, an ​LGBTQ legal group that represents the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump, in one of the first acts of his second term last year, ‌issued ⁠an executive order targeting what he called “gender ideology extremism” and directing the federal government to only recognize two biologically distinct sexes, male and female; house transgender women in men’s prisons; and cease funding any gender-affirming medical care for inmates.

Several legal challenges by transgender inmates were consolidated before Lamberth, who in February 2025 blocked the transfer of three inmates to men’s prisons. He later applied his ruling to the other 15 plaintiffs in Friday’s case.

In ​the government’s appeal, the plaintiffs explicitly ​declined to argue that all ⁠transgender women must be housed in women’s prisons. Instead, they claimed that they are particularly vulnerable to violence for various reasons, such as the length of time they have been undergoing hormone therapy, their physical appearance, ​and histories of being sexually assaulted.

But the D.C. Circuit panel on Friday said Lamberth had not weighed ​those factors in ⁠each case as required by a federal law allowing inmates to sue over prison conditions.
In a ruling last June in a separate case, Lamberth said federal prisons must keep providing transgender inmates gender-affirming care pending a challenge to Trump’s executive order halting funding for it.

The case is Doe v. Blanche, U.S. Court ⁠of Appeals ​for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 25-5099.

For the plaintiffs: Jennifer Levi of GLAD ​Law

For the government: Benjamin Hayes of the U.S. Department of Justice