Trump Administration’s Ban on Transgender Military Service Ruled Unconstitutional

Featured image: Plantiff U.S. Army Reserve 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott; Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members is most likely unconstitutional, blocking the administration from kicking out current trans military service members.

The judges who ruled against the ban said those service members had been subjected to “demeaning” and “disparaging” orders from both the Department of Defense and from Trump.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that the ban under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is rooted in “animus” against trans people.

“Some of those disqualifications are completely unexplained and have no reasonable justification,” Judge Robert Wilkins wrote in the ruling. He added that the ban was “driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender.”

“As a result, this is not a case where we are left to speculate why the government drafted such broad, undifferentiated classifications,” Wilkins wrote. “Unless we are going to fall for the old Groucho Marx line — ‘who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?’— we have direct evidence in this case that animus motivated the classifications.”

The ruling, however, will still allow the Pentagon to reject new trans recruits while the policy is challenged in court.

Monday’s decision comes months after dozens of active-duty service members and recuits sued the government, arguing the policy violated the 14th Amendment, which is the right of equal protection under the law.

What the judges called the Hegseth Policy came after an executive order by Trump in January 2021 that kicked out trans troops. The Pentagon issued a review of the medical records of trans troops and ordered them to be removed from the military.

This story is developing and will be updated.