Trump takes fight over prisoners' transgender medical treatment

Donald Trump just asked the Supreme Court to do something so obvious it shouldn't need asking: stop using tax dollars to surgically alter convicted felons who want to switch sexes while locked up. The new federal prison policy is a simple refusal to pay for hormone treatments and transition surgeries, and the president is asking the Court to let it stand. That should be a two-second decision. Instead, it's a legal battle, which tells you everything about how far the other side wants to stretch the meaning of "medical care."

No one has a right to a taxpayer-funded sex change, let alone a prisoner who is there because they broke the law. The left will dress this up in the language of compassion and dignity, but prison isn't a spa. It's where you go to lose rights, not gain new entitlement programs. Biden's justice department apparently had no problem with the old approach. Trump does, and he's right.

We expect the usual court fight. But the answer was clear the moment the policy was announced because the only people who benefit from this litigation are activists who want to turn every institution into their project. Prisoners can keep their health care, just not elective surgeries paid for by the same taxpayers they victimized. If the Court needs the last word, fine. The rest of us already know how this one should end.