President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military was upheld by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The Trump administration made an urgent motion to the justices to lift a countrywide injunction that was preventing the program while the case was still pending.
The three liberal justices dissented, according to the court’s brief order.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the statement, “No more trans @ DoD,” on X. Hegseth stated in a video earlier Tuesday in a different Defense Department post prior to the announcement: “No more dudes in dresses. We are done with that s—.”
According to Defense Department estimates, there are currently little over 4,000 transgender service members, while other advocates place the number significantly higher. The overall number of active service personnel is approximately 2.1 million.
The seven transgender service members who filed a lawsuit to stop it, led by Navy captain Emily Shilling, will be among those impacted.
“Transgender service members have served this nation with courage, skill, and selflessness for years,” Shilling stated on Tuesday. “We’ve flown combat missions, led sailors, commanded troops, and stood watch. We are not a theory. We are not a policy debate. We are real people, doing real jobs, in defense of a nation we still believe in, even when it struggles to believe in us.”
“I know this decision will cause fear and doubt in the ranks. To those feeling shaken, I say this: stand tall. You are not alone. You are part of a community that will fight for you, stand beside you, and never stop pushing forward,” she continued.
In a joint statement, plaintiffs’ attorneys Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation described the Supreme Court ruling as a “devastating blow” to transgender service members.
They went on to say that the policy “has everything to do with prejudice and nothing to do with military readiness.”
The policy was also barred nationwide by a judge in a different case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit temporarily halted that decision while it considered arguments on whether to block it more permanently. The court hasn’t made a decision.
In comparison to a comparable idea put into effect during the first Trump administration, the program, which was revealed in February, is far more thorough. “Generally, it disqualifies from military service individuals who have gender dysphoria or have undergone medical interventions for gender dysphoria,” according to court documents filed by Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
Sauer stated that justices must demonstrate “substantial deference” to the Defense Department’s decision on military matters in order for the Supreme Court to step in.
The government based the policy on a Pentagon analysis from the first Trump administration that said gender dysphoric individuals pose a threat to “military effectiveness and lethality.”
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The challengers contended in court that the prohibition defies various constitutional requirements, including the 14th Amendment, which states that laws must be applied equally to all people.
According to court documents, transgender military members have demonstrated in recent years that they are just as capable as any other member of the armed forces. Trump’s previous limits had been lifted by then-President Joe Biden.
“An unprecedented degree of animus towards transgender people animates and permeates the ban: it is based on the shocking proposition that transgender people do not exist,” according to the lawyers.
