Supreme Court allows Trump to implement transgender military service ban for now

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can move forward with a ban on transgender military service members for now, lifting a lower court injunction against the policy after a judge ruled it was an “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy.”

The court did not explain its decision other than to say the order would expire if the justices ultimately take up the case on the merits and issue a ruling striking it down.

Litigation continues in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated they would have denied Trump’s request for a stay.

During Trump’s first term, the high court took a similar course, lifting an injunction against a ban on transgender service members after it was challenged. President Biden ended the policy and around 1,000 transgender members of the military have provided active service over the past four years.

At the end of April, the Trump administration made a new emergency request seeking an immediate stay of a nationwide injunction blocking the ban on openly transgender military service members.

Solicitor General John Sauer said the injunction, issued by a district court in Washington, usurps the authority of the president in determining who can serve in the nation’s armed forces and runs counter to the high court’s own decision in the first Trump administration to allow the ban to move forward.

The Trump administration’s policy on transgender soldiers would be a “de facto blanket prohibition” that seeks “to eradicate transgender service,” Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush nominee, wrote when issuing the preliminary injunction in the case, Trump v. Shilling, on March 27.

The case was filed by a group of seven transgender service members and one transgender person who wishes to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.