Judge blocks Trump transfer of Biden-commuted inmates to supermax prison

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a preliminary injunction on February 11, 2026, blocking the Trump Justice Department from transferring 20 death-row inmates — whose sentences Biden had commuted to life without parole in December 2024 — to ADX Florence, the federal Supermax prison in Colorado. Kelly found that DOJ officials predetermined the outcome of the transfer review, calling the process "an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began." He ruled the transfers violated Fifth Amendment due process because they punished inmates specifically for receiving presidential clemency. Trump's January 20, 2025 executive order had directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to house the commuted inmates "in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes," which Kelly treated as direct evidence of retaliatory intent.