Federal Judge Questions DOJ Over Transgender Inmate Transfers

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth indicated that the Justice Department may have breached his preliminary injunction by moving incarcerated transgender women into a “quasi-solitary” unit at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Ten transgender women are now housed in that segregated unit; eight of them are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s 2021 executive order that directs the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to house inmates based on biological sex and to halt gender-affirming care. Attorneys for the inmates argue the transfers deprive them of the privileges they enjoyed in women’s facilities and worsen gender dysphoria, a condition linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Associated PressJudge Suggests DOJ Violated Order Over Trans Inmate Transfers

In early 2021, President Trump issued an executive order requiring the BOP to place transgender women in men’s prisons and to stop providing gender-affirming medical treatment. The order prompted a lawsuit on behalf of several transgender inmates. On June 7, Judge Lamberth ruled that the government must house the plaintiffs in women’s prisons or women’s halfway houses and enjoined the BOP from enforcing the portion of the executive order that would move them to men’s facilities.

Judge Suggests DOJ Violated Order Over Trans Inmate Transfers Associated Press

During a hearing in late July 2026, Judge Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Jared Littman, “You’re violating my order, aren’t you?” Littman replied that “based on the words of your order, there was no violation.” The government contends that the injunction does not require the inmates to share common spaces with cisgender female prisoners, so placing them in a restricted unit does not breach the court’s directive.

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He warned that the transfers exacerbate the women’s gender dysphoria and constitute cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Constitution.

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• “You’re violating my order, aren’t you?” — Royce Lamberth, district judge

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• “Based on the words of your order, there was no violation.” — Royce Lamberth, district judge

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• “This is a backdoor attempt to implement the executive order,” — Alexander Shalom, plaintiffs’ attorney

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• “The conditions are not in any way comparable to a women’s facility.” — Alexander Shalom, plaintiffs’ attorney

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