The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift protections preventing the Pentagon from discharging transgender troops who challenged the president’s military policy, seeking intervention before the constitutional case reaches a full trial.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the Pentagon to remove transgender service members who are currently protected by a lower-court injunction, bringing another stage of President Donald Trump’s military policy before the justices while its constitutionality remains unresolved.
The administration filed its request after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in June that the government could not discharge the transgender service members who brought the lawsuit.
According to The New York Times, the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to intervene before the case proceeds through a full trial.
The administration argues that the appeals court improperly restricted the president’s authority as commander in chief and failed to give sufficient deference to military judgments concerning personnel, readiness and force effectiveness.
At issue is a policy that traces back to Trump’s January 2025 executive order directing the military to end transgender service.
The Pentagon subsequently adopted procedures for separating affected service members and preventing transgender individuals from entering the armed forces.
The administration maintains that those decisions are based on military considerations including readiness and cohesion and therefore fall squarely within the president’s constitutional authority over the armed forces.
The D.C. Circuit disagreed with that position in its June ruling.
A divided three-judge panel concluded that the administration had not adequately justified the policy under constitutional equal-protection standards and allowed a preliminary injunction protecting the plaintiffs to remain in place.
The case, Talbott v. United States, involves current service members who, according to the appeals court, had served honorably and met military performance requirements.
The ruling did not impose a nationwide prohibition preventing the administration from applying its policy to every transgender service member.
Instead, it protected the plaintiffs who brought the case while their broader constitutional claims continue through the courts.
The Trump administration is now asking the Supreme Court to remove that protection and permit the Pentagon to enforce the policy against those individuals during the litigation.
The dispute began shortly after Trump returned to office.
His January 2025 executive order stated that transgender identity was incompatible with standards the administration sought to enforce throughout the military.
The order emphasized readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity and integrity and instructed the Pentagon to develop policies excluding transgender people from military service.
According to the D.C. Circuit’s opinion, the Defense Department later implemented a policy generally requiring the separation of service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
The policy also placed restrictions on individuals who had undergone gender transition or expressed an intention to do so.
Administration lawyers have characterized the policy as a military personnel decision rather than a broader judgment about the legal rights or status of transgender Americans.
They contend courts should give substantial deference to the executive branch when reviewing decisions involving military readiness and personnel standards.
The service members challenging the policy argue that the government is discriminating against them despite their ability to satisfy the same requirements imposed on other members of the armed forces.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD, which represent the plaintiffs, have argued that the policy violates constitutional protections and threatens the careers of troops who have already demonstrated that they can perform their duties.
The legal protections currently at issue originated with U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington.
Reyes issued a preliminary injunction preventing the administration from enforcing the policy against the plaintiffs while the lawsuit proceeded.
The D.C. Circuit largely upheld that protection in June, delivering a significant setback to the administration by preventing the immediate discharge of the service members involved in the case.
The administration’s Supreme Court filing seeks to reverse that result without waiting for a final judgment from the lower courts.
The justices have previously allowed portions of the Trump administration’s transgender military policy to take effect while other litigation continued.
They have not, however, issued a final decision resolving whether the current policy is constitutional.
That distinction makes the administration’s latest request primarily procedural at this stage.
The Supreme Court must determine whether the Pentagon should be allowed to enforce the policy against the plaintiffs while the courts continue considering their constitutional challenge.
If the justices grant the administration’s request, the lower-court protection could be lifted and the affected service members could face separation while the lawsuit proceeds.
If the Court declines to intervene, the preliminary injunction protecting the plaintiffs would remain in place as the case moves toward further proceedings.
The dispute is one of several legal challenges involving Trump administration policies affecting transgender Americans, including cases involving military service, federal definitions of sex and access to gender-related medical treatment.
The immediate question in Talbott is narrower.
Rather than deciding the ultimate constitutionality of Trump’s military policy, the Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the administration may begin enforcing it against the transgender service members who successfully obtained court protection while their case is still pending.
Original article
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