People hold rainbow-coloured umbrellas and flags at a demonstration as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments over an appeal by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of a lower court’s decision upholding a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, outside the court in Washington, U.S., December 4, 2024.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
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.
The decision is a loss for the seven individual transgender service members, led by lead plaintiff Emily Shilling, a Navy commander, who had sued to block it.
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.
