A United States appeals court rejected a request from the Trump administration to be allowed to enforce its ban on transgender-identifying individuals serving in the U.S. military.
The Trump administration filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle “issued a preliminary injunction putting on hold the military’s new policy of identifying and discharging any transgender service members,” according to Reuters.
In its appeal of Settle’s ruling, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit “to put the ruling on hold,” according to the outlet.
Per the outlet:
The Trump administration appealed Settle’s ruling, and asked the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put the ruling on hold – which would have allowed it to enforce the ban for now – while the appeal played out.
The rejection of the Trump administration’s appeal was issued by Judges Wallace Tashima, John Owens, and Roopali Desai. Tashima was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, Owens was nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Desai was nominated by former President Joe Biden.
The court’s rejection of the Trump administration’s appeal of Settle’s ruling comes after Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation “brought the case on behalf of seven active-duty transgender service members.”
Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong reported that U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who was appointed by Biden, blocked the Pentagon from “implementing its policy that would bar transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military without a waiver.”
In January, Trump issued an executive order titled, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which stated that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex 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 executive order continued. “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.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a directive in February stating that “all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused.”
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