WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a ban on transgender people in the military while legal challenges were pending.
The court acted in a dispute over a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service and could result in the dismissal of experienced, decorated officers.
The court’s three liberal justices stated that they would have put the policy on hold. The majority and dissenting justices did not explain their votes, which is not uncommon in emergency appeals.
Just after starting his second term in January, Trump aggressively rolled back transgender people’s rights. The Republican president issued an executive order claiming that transgender service members’ sexual identity “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is detrimental to military readiness.
AP According to Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani, the Supreme Court has temporarily approved a ban on transgender military service.
In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy in February giving the military services 30 days to figure out how to find and remove transgender service members from the force. The lawsuits had stalled these actions.
“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X following Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling. Earlier in the day, before the court ruled, Hegseth stated that his department is abandoning wokeness and weakness.
“No more pronouns,” he stated at a special operations forces conference in Tampa. “No more dudes wearing dresses. We are finished with that s—-.
The Defense Department said Tuesday that officials are determining the next steps, but they were not aware of any immediate actions.
Three federal judges ruled against the ban.
In the case before the justices on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, ruled in favor of seven long-serving transgender military members who claim the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that firing them would cause long-term damage to their careers and reputations. A prospective service member also filed suit.
Individual service members who challenged the ban together have received more than 70 medals over the course of their 115-year careers, according to their lawyers. Emily Shilling, the lead plaintiff, is a Navy commander with nearly 20 years of service, including 60 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Trump administration provided no explanation for why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly for the past four years with no problems, were suddenly banned, Settle wrote. The judge was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush and previously served as a captain in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps.
Settle imposed a nationwide moratorium on the policy, and a federal appeals court denied the administration’s emergency request. The Justice Department then appealed to the Supreme Court.
A federal judge in the nation’s capital also blocked the policy, but that decision was temporarily halted by a federal appeals court that heard arguments last month. The three-judge panel, which includes two judges appointed by Trump during his first term, appeared to support the administration’s position.
In a more limited decision, a New Jersey judge barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, citing evidence that their separation would cause long-term damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair.
The LGBTQ rights organizations Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation described the high court order as a devastating blow to dedicated and highly qualified service members.
“By allowing this discriminatory ban to go into effect while our challenge is pending, the court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice.
Transgender people adhere to the same standards and values as all other service members. “We continue to believe that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will be overturned,” the groups said in a statement.
The federal appeals court in San Francisco will hear the administration’s appeal, which will take at least several months. However, the Supreme Court’s order will keep the transgender ban in place.
In 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency, a Defense Department policy allowed transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in office, the Republican issued a directive banning transgender service members, with an exception for some who had already begun transitioning under more lenient rules enacted during Obama’s Democratic administration.
The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect. When Democratic President Joe Biden took office, he repealed the law.
The rules that the Defense Department wants to enforce have no exceptions.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that Trump’s first-term policy and the new one are “materially indistinguishable,” but lawyers for the service members who sued disagreed.
Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they account for less than 1% of the 2.1 million troops who serve.
In February, a senior defense official stated that approximately 4,200 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and are currently serving in the active duty, National Guard, and Reserves.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues, stated that the total cost of psychotherapy, gender-affirming hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery, and other treatment for service members will be approximately $52 million between 2015 and 2024.
