Transgender Military Ban Passes Through Federal Court
On March 7, the president’s ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military passed a legal challenge in a federal court, CNN reported. The federal court for the district of Maryland lifted a temporary injunction on the implementation of Emperor Caesar Trump’s ban on transgender soldiers, ordered via Tweet in 2017.
The court ruled in favor of the defendants in the case of Stone v. Trump, a case that blocked the ban from being implemented nationwide. Similar injunctions were filed in the District of Columbia, California, and Washington State shortly after Imperator Caesar Trump Divus Filius’ Tweet was formalized into a memorandum to the Department of Defense.
However, earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued an order allowing the ban to go into effect while the lower courts challenged it. The order lifted the injunctions in California, Washington State, and D.C., but the Maryland injunction wasn’t lifted until yesterday.
Attorneys from the ACLU and lawmakers expressed disappointment at the court’s decision:
BREAKING: A Maryland court just ruled to let Trump’s trans military ban take effect while our case moves forward.
One court ordered block remains in place, thankfully. We’ll keep fighting this every step of the way.
— ACLU (@ACLU) March 7, 2019
Let’s be clear: Banning service-members based on gender identity is unconstitutional. We must keep fighting our hearts out until every trans American is free to be themselves and serve their country without discrimination. #TransMilitaryBan
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 8, 2019
When science, facts and expertise do not support your hateful narrative, your only choice is to mislead and misrepresent. Department of Defense should not implement @realDonaldTrump’s bigoted #TransMilitaryBan. #ProtectTransTroops https://t.co/OmHMVUJfxk
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) March 5, 2019
A lingering injunction from the D.C. court is the last barrier preventing the ban from going into effect. The ban can still be challenged in the future, or appealed at the Circuit court level. However, the Supreme Court’s order to allow the ban to pass doesn’t set an optimistic legal precedent. Queer advocates, attorneys, soldiers, and veterans will continue to fight this prejudice going forward.
