(Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with its ban on transgender members in the military while the issue works its way through the courts.
The justices on May 6 blocked a lower court order that had temporarily froze the ban’s enforcement. Three federal judges have ruled against the ban since President Donald Trump issued an executive order earlier this year banning transgender service members from serving in the military, leading the Justice Department to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
The court’s three liberal justices — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — said they would have kept the policy on hold.
In the case the justices acted in Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, had ruled for several long-serving transgender military members who say that the ban is insulting and discriminatory and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations, according to the Associated Press. Settle imposed a nationwide hold on the policy and a federal appeals court rejected the administration’s emergency plea.
This is a developing story.
