Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Trans Military Ban

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service to move forward on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson disented, asserting they would have allowed the pause to stay in place.

The high court struck down a nationwide injunction from a district judge, but it will likely revisit the case of Shilling v. United States. The court didn’t yet rule on the merits of the policy.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January stating transgender service allowed under the Biden administration is harmful to military readiness and “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

In response to Trump’s executive order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gaves the branches 30 days to determine how to identify transgender service members and remove them.

Previously, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, sided with seven transgender military members who sued, claiming the ban is discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers. He issued a nationwide injuction. Settle was appointed to the bench in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

The district judge characterized the policy as a “blanket prohibition on transgender service,” and that the plaintiffs would likely win the case based equal protection, First Amendment, and procedural due process.

The Justice Department filed an emergency applicaiton with the Supreme Court to lift the Washington state judge’s nationwide injunction. 

The Suprme Court ruling stops the injunction, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will still rule on the policy.

The lead plaintiff is Navy commander Emily Shilling, who has almost 20 years of service, and reportedly flew 60 missions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In a more narrow case in March, a federal judge in New Jersey stopped the Air Force from removing two transgender members.

The policy has moved back and forth based on what party controls the White House. In his last full year of the Barack Obama administration, the Defense Department issued a policy permitting transgender people to serve openly in the military. The Trump Defense Department reversed the Obama policy. The Joe Biden admnistration then restored the Obama policy.

This is a breaking news story and it will be updated.

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