Supreme Court allows Trump to ban transgender people from military

On Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to enforce a policy from the Department of Defense that bans transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. This decision came after the court paused a federal judge's ruling in Washington state that had stopped the government from implementing the policy nationwide.

When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he signed an order to let transgender troops serve openly in the military. However, on January 20 of this year, former President Donald Trump canceled Biden’s order and required the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to implement a ban on individuals with gender dysphoria, which is the psychological distress that can arise when a person’s gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth.

On February 26, the Department of Defense announced this ban, stating that anyone with gender dysphoria or those who had received medical treatment for it would be disqualified from military service. The Department explained that the medical and mental health challenges associated with gender dysphoria are not compatible with the rigorous standards needed for military duty.

Seven current transgender service members, along with one person who wants to join the military and a nonprofit organization, filed a lawsuit against this new policy. The lead plaintiff, Commander Emily Shilling, has served as a naval aviator for nearly twenty years, and she believes the Navy has invested around $20 million in her training.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that the ban violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection and labeled the policy a "de facto blanket ban" on transgender service members.

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit turned down the government’s request to freeze Settle’s order while they appealed it, the Trump administration brought the case to the Supreme Court on April 24. They argued that without the Supreme Court’s involvement, the lower court's ruling would remain in effect too long, which the Trump administration said would negatively impact military readiness.

The challengers argued that pausing Settle’s order would allow the government to discharge thousands of transgender service members, ending their military careers and disrupting military units.

In an unsigned order issued on Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to pause Settle’s ruling while the appeal is considered by the 9th Circuit and possibly the Supreme Court. Usually, in emergency situations like this, the court does not provide an explanation for its decisions.

The court's three justices appointed by Democratic presidents—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—indicated they would have denied the government's request, but they also did not explain their reasoning.