Federal judge blocked Trump administration Tuesday, as it bans trans people from serving the military.
In a forcedly written opinion that condemned the president's efforts, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued an injunction allowing trans units to continue serving the military under rules established by the Biden administration until a lawsuit against the Trump administration's ban was decided.
“The bottom ban evokes some dim-like words to target vulnerable groups in violation of the Fifth Amendment,” Judge Reyes wrote.
According to the Department of Defense, around 4,200 current service members, or about 0.2% of the military, are transgender. It includes pilots, senior officers, nuclear engineers, green berets, rank and file soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Despite their relatively small numbers, they were the disproportionate focus of the Trump administration.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order that was markedly described as trans units torment the military with “radical gender ideology” and “adopting gender identities that contradict soldiers' commitment to an honorable, true and disciplinary lifestyle, even in the personal lives of individuals.”
In February, the Department of Defense issued a new policy that includes the same language, saying all trans units would be kicked out of the military, regardless of their achievement.
Several service members immediately sued, saying that the policy amounted to illegal discrimination that violated its constitutional rights under the law.
The military has yet to finalize plans to enable the ban, encourage them to “voluntarily separate,” and even provide payments to encourage their fast departures, but they have not yet forced the trans squad. The Navy has set a deadline of March 28 to request voluntary separation for Transsailors.
Six weeks after Trump's executive order was signed, the military says he was forced to use pronouns, complying with grooming standards for birth sex, being denied medical care, handed over for assignments sent from deployments, and taking administrative leave.
“Their lives and careers are totally confused,” said Shannon Minter, head of legal affairs at the National Center for Lesbians, on behalf of service members. “So it's very important to save them instantly.”
Minter said Trump's executive order was full of illegal maliciousness known in the legal world as animus, and he felt he would not survive federal court scrutiny against a certain group of people.
During a controversial hearing on March 12, Judge Reyes, appointed by President Biden in 2023, fired a day by Justice Department lawyers defending policy, and she often expressed dissatisfaction with their responses
The judge lined up through reports on trans service members cited by the government when the ban was issued, saying the data was not older and that the Department of Defense's conclusion was “completely, seriously misleading.”
The evidence presented is very thin, she said at one point that the Department of Defense may have often cited Beyoncé's latest album.
“How can you say that? Does that mean an entire group of people lack humility?” The judge told the government's lawyer that he had justified the ban. “That doesn't make sense.”
Jason Mannion, one of the government's lawyers, argued at the hearing that federal law gave the military a special room to make decisions and determining the merits of the Department of Defense evidence was not the court's job. “At the end of the day, we are asking you to postpone your military judgment,” Manion said.
“You continue to assume that judgment is embedded in this,” the judge replied. “The only judgment in this case is as far as I can say,” she said, that the administration believed that trans people lacked integrity, humility, judgment and warrior spirit.
The judge repeatedly suggested that the apparent lack of evidence that ranked trans units had negative effects suggests that the administration's policies were driven by Animus.
Manion argued that showing that Animus had an impact on the policy was not sufficient to justify finding it was illegal. The Supreme Court, which ruled it upheld President Trump's 2017 executive order, said it banned travelers from seven majorities, saying that the order on trans forces is illegal only if it is based solely on animus.
“I just have evidence of Animus,” he said, “I won't get over the hump.”
Trans units have once won in court against similar orders. President Trump announced a Twitter transgender ban early in his first term in office, but the policy was quickly blocked by two federal judges.
The resulting injunction existed for two years until the Supreme Court's 2019 ruling granted a reaffirmed ban, and allowed the court to take effect while considering the constitutionality of the policy. The incident was withdrawn after President Joe Biden retracted the Trump ban in 2021, causing concern over whether the ban on members of transgender services would become a constitutional issue.
The Trump administration's latest initiative is a noticeable deviation from the 77-year trend of the military to welcome an increasingly diverse American. Meanwhile, it was the White House, which generally sought more inclusion, and the opposing troops. Now the role is reversed.
Military leaders have repeatedly opposed the ban on transgender people.
The transgender order is part of a drastic effort to roll back military diversity efforts. Efforts the Trump administration considers counterproductive. The rollback includes the firing of several top military leaders, a recognition of gay pride and black history at the end of the month, and a purge of content on diversity and inclusive efforts from the Department of Defense website.
This week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would end genders that affirm the care of trans veterans.
“If veterans are trying to change sex, they can do it on their own dime,” the veteran secretary said Monday.
The new injunction has now spared trans service members from being fired, but many say it's difficult to continue their careers as if nothing had happened.
Sergeant. First class Julia Becraft, assigned to the Texas Armored Battalion, was scheduled to be promoted to platoon leadership this July, but promotions have been pending since the ban was announced.
She was distraught with the president's order, so she decided to take a leave to focus on her mental health and is taking part in treatment sessions.
“Everyone in my unit was really supportive, but my world turned upside down,” she said.
Sergeant Becraft served in the Army for 14 years, deployed three times to Afghanistan and was awarded a Bronze Star. Now she is facing being kicked out of service without retirement benefits.
Even if she is finally allowed to stay, the president's actions make her wonder if she can still commit to serving her country.
“It's not just because they come after me and want me,” she said. “It's the culmination of everything else they're doing. They defeat Day's efforts and fire all these great leaders for no reason. I wish I could get strong and fight, but honestly, I'm just scared.”
