The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the immediate removal of 29 active-duty service members who are transgender. The appeal, filed as a matter of "exceptional importance," seeks to bypass further legal proceedings before a January trial challenging the Pentagon's ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.
Several lower courts have found that the ban is likely based on animus and violates service members' constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, conclusions the government disputes. Federal judges in a case known as U.S. v. Talbott blocked the military last June from discharging more than two dozen individual plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit challenging the policy. The administration is appealing this specific ruling.
Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the ruling allowing the plaintiffs to remain in their positions was "gravely erroneous." He stated in the government's petition that the military's authority to determine who may serve is of "exceptional importance" and that the Supreme Court should address the constitutionality of the policy, which he contended is inconsistent with the Court's precedents and the principle of deference to the military.
The Supreme Court is expected to consider this fall whether to hear the case at this early stage, before a final ruling on the merits from a lower court. The 29 plaintiffs, who include active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard members, as well as an individual seeking to enlist, will remain in their positions in the interim.
Attorneys for the transgender service members noted that the administration's own lawyers admitted these individuals meet all military standards. They argued that discharging these troops based on "hostility and this administration’s political whims" would waste taxpayer money and dismiss highly trained personnel.