Trump puts trans troops in Supreme Court crosshairs 

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump called on the Supreme Court on Thursday to prevent transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a policy that disqualifies people with a gender dysphoria diagnosis from military service based on Trump’s “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” executive order.

The administration argued that its policy focuses on a medical condition, but a federal judge found that it intended to ban military service by transgender people.

Ruling in favor of seven trans service members and one prospective recruit who challenged the policy, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle blocked enforcement of the policy, stating that the administration didn’t explain why transgender troops who have served openly for the past four years without problems should suddenly be banned.

Trump returned to familiar arguments in his emergency docket filings, claiming that the lower courts were interfering with presidential authority. He told the justices that Settle overstepped and that the Defense Department should have deference over its policies.

“The district court’s injunction nullifies that exercise of professional military judgment and blocks the implementation of a policy that the Department has deemed necessary to maintain its ‘rigorous standards’ and ‘deliver a ready, deployable force,’” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote.

During his first term, Trump implemented a similar ban, but the Biden administration reversed it, allowing transgender troops to openly serve in the military for four years. Settle, a George W. Bush appointee, said transgender troops’ service under former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin undermined the Trump administration’s claims that their service created risks for the military.

The Trump administration, however, didn’t put much stock in Austin’s policy, arguig that the courts needed to trust the executive branch’s discretion over military affairs.

“If the separation of powers means anything, the government obviously suffers irreparable harm when an unelected judge usurps the role of the political branches in operating the Nation’s armed forces,” Sauer wrote.

Of the over 2 million people in the U.S. military, only 4,240 are transgender.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes also blocked the enforcement of the policy in a separate case brought by 14 service members in D.C. A Joe Biden appointee, Reyes said that leaders have historically used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized people the privilege of serving.

Reyes also found the policy to be a ban on transgender people.

A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit seemed similarly skeptical that the policy wasn’t an outright ban. U.S. Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard, a Barack Obama appointee, said that the government couldn’t justify its policy beyond a distaste for trans people.

The Supreme Court asked the trans troops to respond to the application by May 1.

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