The Supreme Court on October 21, 2026, denied the Trump administration's request to pause a federal judge's order barring the Bureau of Prisons from enforcing its February 2026 policy on health care for transgender inmates. The policy would have stopped inmates from obtaining hormone therapy and social accommodations such as makeup and wigs. Justices Alito and Thomas would have granted the request.
The Supreme Court on October 19, 2026, declined to hear appeals from Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid bin 'Atash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi seeking to enforce 2024 plea agreements that would have spared them the death penalty in exchange for life sentences. The denial leaves in place a D.C. Circuit ruling that then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin validly withdrew the deals. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in Mohammad's case.
The U.S. Supreme Court on October 19, 2026, declined to hear Wilcox v. Trump, the challenge by former National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox to President Trump's decision to fire her in early 2025. The denial leaves in place a December 2025 D.C. Circuit ruling that the statute letting presidents remove board members only for neglect of duty or malfeasance violates the separation of powers.
A divided D.C. Circuit panel denied Anthropic PBC's petitions challenging the Department of War's exclusion of Claude from the military supply chain under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act. Judge Katsas, joined by Judge Rao, held the Secretary reasonably found Anthropic's contractual limits on autonomous lethal warfare and domestic surveillance a supply-chain risk, and rejected Anthropic's notice, due process and First Amendment claims. Judge Henderson dissented on the statute's definition of supply chain risk.