The U.S. Capitol as seen on March 21, 2024. (Gianna Gronowski/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow a ban on transgender troops to take effect while legal challenges to the policy continue.
The request comes after a federal appeals court upheld a court order blocking the military from carrying out Trump’s prohibition. The administration had attacked the orders as improperly setting policy for the country.
Trump in January signed an executive order stating a person who expressed “a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex” was not compatible with the rigorous requirements of military service.
“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 order stated.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy in February disqualifying from service troops and applicants who had a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria or had taken steps to transition.
The move reversed a policy implemented under former President Joe Biden that had allowed transgender service members to openly serve in the military.
The reversal immediately prompted a lawsuit from seven transgender service members, one transgender person who wants to join the military and an advocacy group who argued the ban violated the Constitution.
A federal judge in Washington ruled in favor of the legal challenge in March, saying the Trump administration’s “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy” would cause lasting damage to the service members’ careers and reputations.
The judge found the policy likely violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.
In its filing to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said the judge’s injunction “cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the [Defense Department’s] professional military judgments are owed.”
The Supreme Court has asked the challengers to file a response to the administration’s request by May 1.
