Appeals Court declines to block Kentucky law banning transgender procedures on inmates

A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to block a Kentucky law that bans transgender procedures on the state’s prison inmates while the case is being heard.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a biological male, Maddilyn Marcum, who identifies as female, and is imprisoned at the Northpoint Training Center in Boyle County. He had been convicted of murder in 2015 and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Marcum had begun receiving hormone replacement therapy several years earlier.

The suit seeks to block enforcement of Senate Bill 2, passed in the 2025 session, which bans the use of public funds for transgender procedures, including hormone replacement therapy in prisons. After the law went into effect, the Dept. of Corrections reduced and then eliminated Marcum’s procedure. The lawsuit argues that the law violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection rights.

Last month, a judge for the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky denied the ACLU’s request to temporarily block the law, and now the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed, meaning the law will remain in effect as the case proceeds.

In its ruling, the Court said Kentucky would suffer “irreparable harm” if it blocked the law.

 “[A]ny time a State is enjoined by a court from effectuating statutes enacted by representatives of its people, it suffers a form of irreparable injury,” wrote the Court.

“And the public interest also weighs in Kentucky’s favor because the public is served by a ‘a correct application’ of the law” and by implementing the ‘will’ of Kentucky’s people.”

The Court concluded, “On the current briefing, Marcum has not made the showing necessary to justify an immediate injunction. The motion for an injunction pending appeal is thus DENIED.”

In a statement, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said, “Today’s ruling from the Sixth Circuit is just common sense: Kentucky taxpayers don’t need to pay for sex changes for convicted murderers.

“Our General Assembly reflected the will of those its serves when passing this law, and the Office of the Attorney General will continue to defend it.”