OAN Staff James Meyers
2:39 PM – Tuesday, May 6, 2025
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Trump administration, allowing a transgender ban to be implemented into the U.S. military by lifting a lower court order.
The ruling by the higher court gives the White House a massive victory, as the justices granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to lift the injunction.
The court’s order noted that the three liberal justices on the Supreme Court were against lifting the order.
The January 27th executive order issued by the administration would require the Defense Department to update its guidance regarding “trans-identifying medical standards for military service” and to “rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.”
In their arguments, the Trump administration said that continuing to pause the policy could pose a threat to U.S. military readiness.
“Absent a stay, the district court’s universal injunction will remain in place for the duration of further review in the Ninth Circuit and in this Court – a period far too long for the military to be forced to maintain a policy that it has determined, in its professional judgment, to be contrary to military readiness and the Nation’s interests,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.
Additionally, Trump’s team argued that the current “transgender military policy furthers the government’s important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs.”
The case was immediately challenged by seven transgender military members who brought the suit against the administration in a Seattle-based court, and in Washington D.C.
For the Seattle Case, the plaintiffs argued that the executive order “turns away” transgender military personnel “and kicks them out – for no legitimate reason.”
“Rather, it baselessly declares all transgender people unfit to serve, insults and demeans them, and cruelly describes every one of them as incapable of ‘an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,’ based solely because they are transgender,” it continued.
At the time, the U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle issued a preliminary injunction back in March, which blocked the Trump administration from identifying and removing transgender service members as the suit went up the lower courts.
Judge Settle characterized the ban as a “blanket prohibition on transgender service.”
“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” Settle wrote at the time.
He also wrote that the injunction was set in place to help “maintain the status quo of military policy regarding both active-duty and prospective transgender service,” which were in place before Trump’s January 27th executive order.
In response, the Trump administration immediately appealed the injunction to the 9th Circuit.
The 47th administration argued at the time that the policy “furthers the government’s important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs.”
“The Department of Justice has vigorously defended President Trump’s executive actions, including the Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness Executive Order, and will continue to do so,” a Justice Department official told Fox News Digital at the time.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts