The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to suspend a lower-court order requiring federal prisons to continue gender-affirming care for transgender inmates while a legal challenge proceeds. The unsigned order gave no explanation. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have granted the administration’s request. The dispute centers on a Bureau of Prisons policy that would end hormone therapy and other treatments for transgender prisoners. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked the policy this summer, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to lift his injunction. Solicitor General D. John Sauer then asked the Supreme Court to intervene. The high court’s action does not resolve whether the administration can ultimately carry out the policy. It leaves Lamberth’s order in force as the case, Kingdom v. Trump, continues. In its emergency filing, the administration argued that providing the care could create safety risks, including making recipients targets for attacks, and could fuel resentment among other inmates. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents prisoners in the case, disputed the government’s position and argued that the Bureau of Prisons had not cited security or medical concerns in its earlier records about treatment for gender dysphoria. Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, said the group estimates that more than 2,000 transgender people are in Bureau of Prisons custody. The case represents about 1,000 inmates with a gender dysphoria diagnosis; the ACLU estimates roughly 800 have been prescribed hormone therapy. Those figures are the organization’s estimates, and the bureau stopped publishing data on transgender inmates after President Donald Trump took office in 2025. The dispute concerns care that can include hormone treatment and other interventions. Supporters say treatment can be medically necessary, while the administration has challenged the standards used to guide transgender health care. The Bureau of Prisons has treated people diagnosed with gender dysphoria since at least 1992, according to the ACLU. The emergency ruling comes amid a broader series of legal battles over transgender policies. The Supreme Court has previously allowed states to bar transgender girls from girls’ sports at publicly funded schools and upheld state laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors. Wednesday’s order, however, addresses only the federal prison policy and the interim injunction keeping it on hold.