Trump asks Supreme Court to uphold military’s ban on transgender service members

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold its policy banning transgender Americans from serving in the military, the latest significant case involving trans Americans to reach the conservative court in recent years.

Days after taking office last year, Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to ban transgender service members as incompatible with military service. The administration is appealing a ruling from a federal court in Washington, DC, that sided with a group of trans Americans who were already serving.

“The authority of the US military to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed forces is a matter of exceptional importance,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court, according to a copy of the appeal reviewed by CNN that has not yet been publicly docketed.

The Supreme Court will likely decide this fall whether to hear arguments in the case. If it agrees to do so, a decision may land early next summer.

Defense officials have said there are 4,240 service members across active-duty, reserve, and the National Guard ranks with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, defined as the psychological distress an individual feels when their gender identity differs from their gender at birth. Not every transgender individual has gender dysphoria.

Trans Americans have faced a series of significant setbacks at the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Earlier this year, a 6-3 majority upheld state bans on transgender students playing on girls’ sports teams. Last year, in another 6-3 ruling, the court let stand a Tennessee law that banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors seeking to transition to match their gender identity.

Trump campaigned aggressively against trans Americans in 2024 and implemented several policies once in office intended to roll back gains made by transgender people in recent years. The president also banned transgender Americans from joining the military during his first term, but former President Joe Biden repealed that policy in 2021.

Trump’s policy reached the Supreme Court last year in an emergency case, in which the court allowed the president to enforce the ban. As is often the case in emergency rulings, the court did not explain its reasoning. The three liberal justices publicly dissented from the decision, but also did not explain their position.

But since then lower courts have issued new rulings limiting the policy. A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in June upheld a block on the policy for 28 service members who sued. Advocates say that the administration has been aggressively pursuing separation of other trans service members.

“The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to rush in and bless the expulsion of proven, decorated soldiers before a single court has issued a final judgment,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights. “There is no circuit split, no emergency, and no merit – only a policy that multiple courts have now found was driven by prejudice rather than military need.”

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