Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a new Defense Department policy barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes granted a request for a preliminary injunction sought by transgender active-duty service members and transgender people who are in the process of enlisting. The judge’s order temporarily blocks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the military services from implementing President Trump’s executive order and additional guidance that prohibits transgender people from serving in the military.
But the judge put her order on hold until March 21 to give the Justice Department time to seek emergency relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Reyes, appointed by former President Joe Biden, issued her decision after holding several hours of hearings earlier this month, during which she sharply questioned Justice Department lawyers about the Defense Department’s justifications for the ban.
“Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed — some risking their lives —to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” Reyes wrote in her 79-page decision, later adding, “The court’s opinion is long, but its premise is simple. In the self-evident truth that ‘all people are created equal,’ all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less.”
Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights for GLAD Law, one of the lead attorneys in the case, called the ruling “decisive” and said it “speaks volumes.”
“The court’s unambiguous factual findings lay bare how this ban specifically targets and undermines our courageous service members who have committed themselves to defending our nation. Given the court’s clear-eyed assessment, we are confident this ruling will stand strong on appeal,” Levi said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department called the ruling “the latest example of an activist judge attempting to seize power at the expense of the American people, who decisively voted to elect President Trump.”
The policy arose out of an executive order Mr. Trump issued in late January that directed Hegseth to implement a policy for transgender service members based on troop readiness. The order stated that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The executive order also revoked a measure implemented in January 2021 by then-President Joe Biden that allowed transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military.
In response to Mr. Trump’s directive, Hegseth issued a memorandum in early February that halted recruitment of new service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria and paused gender-affirming care for transgender troops. The Pentagon then said in a late February document that the U.S. would begin removing transgender troops from the military within 30 days unless they obtained a waiver.
The memo said that individuals with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria “are no longer eligible for military service.” It also said that pronoun usage when referring to a service member must reflect his or her sex and barred the use of Pentagon funds for gender-affirming care.
The lawsuit before Reyes was filed in late January by a group of more than a dozen transgender active-duty service members, one person enlisted in U.S. Army basic training and five transgender people who were in the process of enlisting. They argued that the ban was unconstitutional and sought a court order blocking its enforcement.
In her decision, Reyes found that the challengers were likely to succeed on their claim that the ban fails the highest level of judicial scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, because it classifies based on sex and transgender status. The judge also held that the Trump administration’s policy is likely driven by unconstitutional animus.
“The Military Ban is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext,” she wrote. “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
Reyes wrote that Mr. Trump and the Defense Department “could have crafted a policy that balances the nation’s need for a prepared military and Americans’ right to equal protection. They still can. The Military Ban, however, is not that policy. The court therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day.”
The judge said government’s policy is “overbroad” and also includes “derogatory generalizations about the different talents, capacities, or preferences of transgender persons.” Such generalizations, Reyes wrote, “do not suffice to show that a sweeping discriminatory ban is substantially related to military readiness and unit cohesion.”
The decision from Reyes is likely to be appealed by the Justice Department, but it is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration, since several of its policies have been temporarily blocked by federal judges. A second challenge to the Mr. Trump’s military ban is currently underway in Washington state.
Mr. Trump sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military during his first term, in 2017, but an initial Pentagon policy was blocked by federal courts. The plan was then revised in 2018, and it took effect the following year and remained in place until the start of the Biden administration.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-blocks-trumps-executive-order-barring-transgender-people-from-the-military/
