The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to enforce a ban on openly trans-identified individuals serving in the U.S. military.
In a miscellaneous order issued Tuesday in the case of United States, et al v. Shilling, Commander, et al, the nation’s high court granted a stay request from the administration, lifting a lower court injunction on the ban.
“The March 27, 2025, preliminary injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, case No. 2:25-cv241, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought,” stated the brief order.
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“Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.”
According to the order, the court’s three left-leaning Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the application for a stay.
Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign, two prominent LGBT advocacy groups pursuing litigation against the ban, released a joint statement on Tuesday denouncing the order.
“By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the Court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice,” they stated.
“Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to her X account on Tuesday to call the order “Another MASSIVE victory in the Supreme Court.”
“President Trump and Secretary [of Defense Pete Hegseth] are restoring a military that is focused on readiness and lethality — not DEI or woke gender ideology,” tweeted Leavitt.
Shortly after being sworn in as president, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which claimed that identifying as the opposite sex “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
In keeping with the Trump executive order, Hegseth issued a written policy in February stating that the U.S. Defense Department only recognizes two sexes — male and female — and that it will not fund service members’ sex-change surgeries or cross-sex hormone therapy.Â
“Military service by Service members and applicants for military service who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria is incompatible with military service,” stated the policy.
“Service by these individuals is not in the best interests of the Military Services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security.”
Litigation ensued, with U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush appointee, issuing a preliminary injunction against the military service ban in March.
Soon after, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request of the Trump administration to lift the injunction while the litigation at the district court level continued.
