Um...:The Supreme Court Is Not as Conservative as Many Believe

Does a prisoner in federal custody who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria have the right to receive hormone treatments and accoutrements (clothing, wigs, padding, cosmetics, etc.) of their preferred sex?

The United States Supreme Court just hinted that, by a 7-2 majority, it may believe the answer to that question is “Yes.” We can only guess, however, since the Court as yet has issued no opinion to that effect. It has, however, denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay of federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth’s ruling affirming special rights for transgender prisoners.

The Supreme Court’s order, issued on Oct. 21, gave no explanation of the Court’s decision, nor did the two dissenting justices (Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito) supply any reasoning. Nevertheless, it was an intriguing jurisprudential moment.

Federal court rulings on gender and sex tend to depart  from the original understanding of the Constitution as well as  commonsense opinions that were almost universally shared until relatively recently. Those traditional beliefs were that there are only two sexes (male and female);  that  your real sex is the one that you had at birth; and that believing anything different is a sign of mental illness.

The Trump administration apparently still adheres to that original understanding. In January 2025, the president reversed policies of the Obama and Biden administrations, seeking a return to that older common-sense set of beliefs. By executive order, he sought to prevent the expenditure of federal funds on transgender hormone treatments and related expenses. Shortly thereafter, the Bureau of Prisons sought to implement the president’s executive order, and a class action suit to prevent that implementation was eventually brought by three transgender prisoners, represented by the ACLU and other transgender-rights advocates. The relief they sought was granted by Judge Lamberth in June 2025 in the case now called Kingdom v. Trump.