The Justice Division requested the Supreme Court docket on Thursday to permit President Trump to implement his ban on transgender troops serving brazenly within the navy.
The emergency software asks the justices to carry a Seattle-based federal choose’s nationwide injunction blocking the coverage.
“The district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the Department’s professional military judgments are owed,” Solicitor Common D. John Sauer wrote within the software.
At minimal, Sauer instructed the excessive courtroom it ought to restrict the choose’s nationwide order so it solely blocks enforcement of the coverage towards the eight transgender service members suing.
Justice Elena Kagan, who acquired the request as a result of she handles emergency requests arising from Washington state by default, ordered the service members’ authorized workforce reply in writing by Might 1.
Trump’s January coverage declared that transgender service members can’t meet the “rigorous standards” wanted to serve. Quickly after, the Division of Protection directed the navy to take away service members with gender dysphoria and to pause integration of latest transgender recruits.
Sauer contended the brand new coverage is “materially indistinguishable” from the one Trump ordered throughout his first time period, which the Supreme Court docket enabled him to implement.
That coverage banned transgender service members however made an exception for some who had already began to transition, in step with guidelines that had been put in place throughout former President Obama’s administration.
The brand new coverage makes no such exception, deeming any service members who’ve a “current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria” not match for navy service.
“In the 2025 policy, as in the [Former Defense Secretary James] Mattis policy before it, the Department rationally determined that service by individuals with gender dysphoria would undermine military effectiveness and lethality—consistent with similar, longstanding determinations for a wide range of other medical conditions (such as asthma and hypertension),” Sauer wrote.
The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the ninth Circuit final week declined to cease Trump’s new ban from going into impact whereas the federal government appeals.
It’s the solely nationwide block in impact, as of now.
In a joint assertion, the advocacy teams representing the service members mentioned they stand able to “zealously represent” their shoppers “as we have at every juncture.”
“Transgender service members have been openly serving our country with honor and distinction for almost a decade and have met and are meeting every neutral service-based standard,” mentioned Lambda Authorized and Human Rights Marketing campaign in a joint assertion. “The U.S. Supreme Court should reject the invitation to stay the district court’s injunction so that they can impose their discriminatory ban while the litigation proceeds.”
In one other lawsuit difficult the ban, a federal choose barred any coverage effectuating Trump’s directive from taking impact. However a brief pause on that order is in place whereas the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit weighs whether or not to droop that call because the administration appeals.
The Trump administration’s various ask that the Supreme Court docket restrict the attain of the Seattle choose’s order comes because the justices weigh whether or not a number of different judges had been correct in blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship government order nationwide.
Oral arguments in that case are set for Might 15.
Up to date at 11:58 a.m. EDT
