While legal arguments continue against the restriction, the US Supreme Court has allowed a ban on transgender military personnel to be implemented.
A lower court’s injunction that had halted the ban from effect was lifted on Tuesday by the court’s conservative majority, which was unsigned.
The Supreme Court’s three left-leaning judges, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, also sought to deny the urgent request for the injunction to be lifted.
President Donald Trump has attempted to restrict transgender people’s access to the US, including through restrictions on military service, since taking office for a second term on January 20.
Trump signed an executive order declaring that only “male and female” would be recognized by his administration on his first day in office. He also revoked a military order that was issued by his predecessor, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, on the same day.
Then, on January 27, he published a new directive titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” It made a comparison between adopting a “false” gender identity and being transgender.
According to the order, such a person’s identity was incompatible with “rigorous standards required for military service.”
The executive order stated that “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life, conflicts with the adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex.”
The deed of a man that demands that others honor his falsehood is inconsistent with the service member’s duty to be humble and selfless.
The Supreme Court’s order on Tuesday sparked a string of legal disputes, including the one that sparked that executive order.
Seven active-duty service members in that case argued that a transgender identity ban was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The group’s supporters point out that the seven members of the group have collectively won more than 70 medals for their contributions. Commander Emily Shilling, the lead plaintiff, had flown 60 missions as a combat pilot for the Navy for nearly 20 years. According to her attorneys, nearly $ 20 million was spent on her training during that time.
However, the Trump administration has argued that the military is liable for the presence of transgender soldiers.
“A new MASSIVE victory for the Supreme Court”! Following Tuesday’s order, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a follow-up to the order on social media.
A military that is focused on readiness and lethality is back, according to “President Trump and] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
Hegseth also shared a brief message announcing “No More Trans@DoD” as an acronym for the Department of Defense.
Trump has attempted to outlaw transgender members of the military for the first time. Trump made a similar policy announcement on the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, in July 2017.
Please be informed that the United States Government won’t accept or permit transgender people serving in any capacity in the U.S. Military after consultation with my generals and military experts, Trump wrote in ellipses-spaced posts in succession.
The Supreme Court also approved that ban in 2019. Then, in 2021, Biden’s executive order made it invalid.
In its urgent appeal to overturn the lower court’s injunction that temporarily lifted its most recent ban on transgender troops, the Trump administration cited its previous success at the Supreme Court.
A judge from the US district court in Tacoma, Washington, named as Benjamin Settle, pronounced that temporary injunction. Settle, a Republican under former President George W. Bush, was appointed to his position as a former army captain.
Settle objected to the transgender service ban in March, claiming that while the government’s arguments made reference to “military judgment” in its filings, there was no “absence of any evidence” that the restriction had to do with military matters.
He wrote, “The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and this question is not particularly close to the record.”
District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC, one of the other judges to have issued injunctions. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which enshrined the right to equal protection under the law, was challenged by 14 transgender service members in a case where she ruled.
Reyes wrote in her decision, which came shortly before Settle’s in March, that “the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender service members have sacrificed – some risking their lives” to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them.
Less than 1% of the US military’s over 2.1 million soldiers are reportedly transgender, according to estimates.
According to a senior official, there are only about 4,200 transgender service members on active duty right now, but advocates claim that figure is undercounting the risk of violence and discrimination brought on by being openly transgender.
Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, both of which support transgender service members in their campaign against Trump’s ban, have been prominent supporters. On Tuesday, the two organizations released a joint statement denouncing the high court’s ruling.
The court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice, they wrote, “by allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues.”
