Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Transgender Troops in Military

On August 25, 2017, Trump signed an Executive Order reinstating a ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military.  It reinstated a prohibition of transgender service members lifted last year and gave Defense Secretary Jim Mattis until Feb. 21, 2018, to submit a plan for implementing the new policy. 

Fortunately, a federal judge temporarily blocked the ban last Monday.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia found the administration’s justification for the ban, which was set to take effect in March 2018, to be suspect and likely unconstitutional. She ruled that the military’s current policy should remain in place.  Judge Kollar-Kotelly noted that the White House’s proposed policies likely violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution...

“There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effective on the military at all,” the judge wrote in a strongly worded, 76-page ruling. “In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects.”Civil rights groups immediately sued the administration on behalf of transgender service members, arguing that the ban was discriminatory and violated their constitutional right to due process and equal protection under the law. A number of lawsuits are still pending. 

Monday’s ruling was seen as an encouraging step for supporters. It stops a plan to discharge all transgender troops, allows current transgender troops to re-enlist and permits transgender recruits to join the military starting in January.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/military-transgender-ban.html

http://www.smartdissent.com/article/update-executive-order-transgender-military-ban-signed