Federal Judge Blocks Trump's Transfer of Biden-Commuted Inmates to Supermax Prison

On December 23, 2024, President Biden exercised his clemency authority to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row. These commutations converted death sentences to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, removing the death penalty but keeping inmates in prison for life.

Biden did not commute three inmates: Robert Bowers (convicted of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting killing 11 people), Dylann Roof (2015 Charleston church shooting killing 9 Black church members), and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (2013 Boston Marathon bombing killing 3 people).

On January 20, 2025—Trump's first day in office—he issued an executive order directing AGAttorney General Pam Bondi to house the 37 commuted inmates 'in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.' This executive order explicitly tied the housing conditions to the inmates' crimes.

Following Trump's executive order, DOJ officials directed the Bureau of Prisons to transfer 20 of the 37 commuted inmates to ADX Florence (Administrative Detention Facility) in 🏔️Colorado—known as the 'Supermax,' the nation's most restrictive federal prison.

On February 11, 2026, U.S. District JTJudge Timothy J. Kelly (🏛️District of Columbia) granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Supermax transfers. Kelly issued the order after hearing evidence that DOJ officials 'made it clear' to Bureau of Prisons leadership that the inmates must be sent to ADX Florence specifically to punish them for receiving Biden's commutations.

Judge Kelly found that the transfer review process was 'an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began.' The government went through the motions of a review process but predetermined the outcome.

The judge's order emphasized that the Constitution requires meaningful due process: 'The Constitution requires that whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property interest that the Due Process Clause protects—whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen—the process it provides cannot be a sham.'