Supreme Court Allow Trans Military Ban

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump to implement his ban on transgender people serving in the military.

The justices granted an emergency request from the Trump administration to lift a nationwide injunction blocking the policy while litigation continues.

The court's brief order noted that the three liberal justices dissented.

"No more trans @ DoD," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X. In a separate Defense Department post earlier Tuesday, before the decision was issued, Hegseth said in a video: "No more dudes in dresses. We are done with that s---."

Just over 4,000 transgender people currently serve in the military, according to Defense Department data, though some activists put the figure much higher. There are around 2.1 million active service members in total.

Among those affected with be the seven individual transgender service members, led by lead plaintiff Emily Shilling, a Navy commander, who had sued to block it.

"Transgender service members have served this nation with courage, skill, and selflessness for years," Shilling said in a statement Tuesday. "We’ve flown combat missions, led sailors, commanded troops, and stood watch. We are not a theory. We are not a policy debate. We are real people, doing real jobs, in defense of a nation we still believe in, even when it struggles to believe in us."

"I know this decision will cause fear and doubt in the ranks. To those feeling shaken, I say this: stand tall. You are not alone. You are part of a community that will fight for you, stand beside you, and never stop pushing forward," she added.

Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, two groups representing the plaintiffs, said in a joint statement that the Supreme Court decision was a "devastating blow" to transgender service members.

The policy “has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice,” they added.

In a separate case, a judge in Washington, D.C., also blocked the policy nationwide, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put that ruling on hold temporarily while it heard arguments on whether to block it more permanently. The court has yet to rule.

The policy, announced in February, is much more comprehensive ban than a similar proposal implemented during the first Trump term. It "generally disqualifies from military service individuals who have gender dysphoria or have undergone medical interventions for gender dysphoria," Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in court papers.

In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Sauer said that judges are required to show "substantial deference" to the Defense Department's judgment on military issues.

In implementing the policy, the government relied on a Pentagon report from the first Trump term that said people with gender dysphoria are a threat to "military effectiveness and lethality."

The challengers argued in court that the ban violates the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which requires that laws apply equally to everybody, as well as other constitutional provisions.

Transgender service members have shown in recent years that they can serve just as well as anyone else, their lawyers said in court papers. Then-President Joe Biden had rolled back Trump's earlier restrictions.

"An unprecedented degree of animus towards transgender people animates and permeates the ban: it is based on the shocking proposition that transgender people do not exist," the lawyers wrote.

A federal judge in Washington state blocked the policy March 27, saying “it is not an especially close question.” The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the ruling on hold, prompting the Trump administration to turn to the Supreme Court.