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Tuesday the Supreme Court officially ruled that the Trump Administration could ban transgender troops serving in the military by a 6-3 vote split along party\/ideological lines.<\/p>\n
The court granted the Justice Department’s request to lift a federal judge’s nationwide order blocking the military from carrying out Trump’s prohibition on transgender servicemembers.<\/p>\n
The court’s brief order was unsigned, as is typical in emergency matters that come before it. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – publicly dissented from the decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A Seattle U.S. District\u00a0 judge, Benjamin Settle, had previously ruled that the ban violated transgender folks’ right to equal protection under the law and stayed it.<\/p>\n
LGBT rights groups Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which are helping represent plaintiffs challenging the ban, called the Supreme Court’s decision a “devastating blow to transgender servicemembers who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation’s defense.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Note that while they ruled on the ban, the Supremes (as they so often do) did not rule on the underlying merits of the case. Expect to see more lower-court drama in the future. For example:<\/p>\n
The litigation will continue in lower courts and could return to the justices in the future. In a separate case, Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes also had issued a nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s ban while that litigation proceeds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit placed that injunction temporarily on hold.<\/p>\n
“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,” Trump’s directive stated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Not a legal basis for the military to hang its hat on, but the medical needs of a transitioning transgender for surgery,hormones and other treatments is certainly relevant – the military typically does not admit diabetics, those needing dialysis, and a slew of other high-maintenance conditions which are arguably similar.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had declined the administration’s request to put Settle’s order on hold.\u00a0 Reuters<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Contrary to popular Internet beliefs, the 9th is not the most reversed District Court – but it certainly seems to have aspirations along those lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"