A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 former death row inmates to the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that the administration's plan likely violates the inmates' Fifth Amendment rights to due process, citing evidence that officials predetermined the transfers as punishment for President Biden's commutations.

In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. On his first day back in office, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to house these inmates in conditions reflecting their crimes. Twenty of these inmates, currently incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit before Judge Kelly, who issued a preliminary injunction blocking their transfers to Florence while the case proceeds.

The judge found that the Bureau of Prisons failed to provide meaningful opportunity for inmates to challenge their redesignations, as the outcome appeared predetermined. Government attorneys argued the bureau has broad authority over facility designations, but Kelly determined that the Constitution requires genuine due process even for notorious prisoners. The Supermax prison houses some of the nation's most dangerous criminals, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.