Trump asks Supreme Court to lift block on transgender military ban

(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration has made a new emergency request of the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of a nationwide injunction blocking the ban on openly transgender military service members.

Solicitor General John Sauer said the injunction, issued by a district court in Washington, usurps the authority of the president in determining who can serve in the nation's armed forces and runs counter to the high court's own decision in the first Trump administration to allow the ban to move forward.

The Trump administration's policy on transgender soldiers would be a "de facto blanket prohibition" that seeks "to eradicate transgender service," 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush nominee, wrote when issuing the preliminary injunction in the case, Trump v. Shilling, on March 27.

The case was filed by a group of seven transgender service members and one transgender person who wishes to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

Settle became the second federal judge to block the policy, which he described as discriminatory and disconnected from the goals of "military readiness, unit cohesion, lethality, or any of the other touchstone phrases long used to exclude various groups from service." There is a separate nationwide injunction in place in a case out of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The ban was introduced as part of a Feb. 26 memo in a court filing for a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's rolling back of policies in an executive order on Jan. 27 that allowed transgender people to serve in the military.

"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," the Feb. 26 memo said. "Individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are no longer eligible for military service.

"The Department only recognizes two sexes: male and female," it added. "An individual's sex is immutable, unchanging during a person's life. All Service members will only serve in accordance with their sex."

While the Trump administration had argued that the judiciary should defer to military leadership and allow the ban, with DOJ lawyers writing in a filing to the D.C. Circuit last week that "plaintiffs offer no sound basis for concluding that the line the military has once again drawn falls outside constitutional bounds," Settle said at the time that he was unable to condone an "unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy."

"The government falls well short of its burden to show that banning transgender service is substantially related to achieving unit cohesion, good order, or discipline. Although the Court gives deference to military decision making, it would be an abdication to ignore the government's flat failure to address plaintiffs' uncontroverted evidence that years of open transgender service promoted these objectives," he wrote.

The group of seven active-duty service members who brought the lawsuit argued that the policy "purposefully discriminates" soldiers based on their gender identity -- an argument that Department of Justice lawyers attempted to rebut by reframing the issue as medical, affecting only people who suffer gender dysphoria. Settle was unconvinced, writing that the policy "uses gender dysphoria as a proxy to ban all transgender service members."

"The government's arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record," he wrote, finding each of the plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed by the policy, which would curtail their service to the country.

Cmdr. Emily Shilling, one of the transgender soldiers who brought the case, is a naval aviator with 19 years of service and flew 60 combat missions before becoming a Navy test pilot.

"There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit's cohesion, or to the military's lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service. There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender," Settle wrote.

Cmdr. Blake Dremann, who oversees hundreds of people who maintain Marine Corps aircraft and repair submarines, also was part of the suit, as well as another senior officer, three enlisted Army and Air Force service members and Matthew Medina, who wants to be a Marine "in order to serve his country and simultaneously escape generational poverty."

Of the about 2.1 million members in the U.S. military, 4,240 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a defense official said in February.

ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.