WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce a ban on transgender service members in the military.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency application at the court seeking to block a nationwide injunction issued by a judge in Washington state.
Challengers say that, among other things, the ban violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires that people be treated equally under the law.
Sauer wrote in the court filing that the judge’s injunction “cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the department’s professional military judgements are owed.”
The ban is an expanded version of a policy Trump implemented in his first term, which the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect. President Joe Biden rolled back those restrictions when he was in office.
The policy “generally disqualifies from military service individuals who have gender dysphoria or have undergone medical interventions for gender dysphoria,” Sauer wrote.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled on March 27 that “The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question.” He noted that the government had failed to provide any updated evidence on why the new policy was needed.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block Settle’s ruling.
The administration relies on a Pentagon decision made during the first Trump administration that said people with gender dysphoria are a threat to “military effectiveness and lethality.”
A separate case is ongoing in the District of Columbia, with the administration seeking to overturn a similar injunction. An appeals court heard oral arguments in that case on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court has asked the challengers to file a response to the administration’s request by May 1. In the meantime, the ban remains blocked.
