On Tuesday, May 6, the Supreme Court announced that President Donald Trump and his administration can move forward with banning transgender people from the U.S. military.
Trump first issued the directive one week after taking office, on Jan. 27. In an executive order titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” the president stated that military members whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
“Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” the order claims. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
On Feb. 26, the Department of Defense carried out that ban.
In a memo, the Pentagon cited Trump’s Jan. 20 order that there are only two biological sexes, male and female, and commanded that any service member who has “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are no longer eligible for military service… [and] will be processed for separation.”
Following the ban, seven current transgender service members and one transgender civilian who hopes to join the military took their case before U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle.
Judge Settle agreed that the order violated the plaintiffs’ rights to equal protection under the law as provided by the Fifth Amendment, said the Trump administration had provided no evidence that transgender service members are a danger to the military, and called the ban “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair.”
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected Trump’s request to freeze Settle’s order while they appealed his ruling, the president elevated the issue to the Supreme Court.
In an unsigned order issued on Tuesday, all six conservative Supreme Court justices overruled the three liberal justices to permit the freeze on Settle’s order while the Trump administration continues its appeals.
This effectively allows the Pentagon to resume kicking out transgender troops as the court battle wages on.
As is common with emergency rulings, the Supreme Court justices offered no written justification for their decision.
Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the organizations behind the preliminary injunction in Judge Settle’s case, responded with a statement that called the decision a “devastating blow to transgender servicemembers who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation’s defense.”
“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,” the statement continued. “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.”
This likely won’t be the last decision the United States’ highest court makes on transgender rights during the first year of the Trump administration. In December 2024, they began hearing arguments on a proposed Tennessee ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
