The Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump a big win on Tuesday by allowing him to exclude openly transgender individuals from the military.
In a brief order, the Supreme Court justices granted an emergency request from the Trump administration to “lift a nationwide injunction blocking the policy,” according to NBC News.
The court lifted the temporary injunction, and while litigation may continue, it is likely that the policy will stay in place.
“The application for stay presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is granted,” the order said. “The March 27, 2025 preliminary injunction entered by the United State District Court for the Western District of Washington, case No. 2:25-cv-241, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought.”
Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson “would deny the application,” the order concluded.
Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton reported in April that the Trump administration had requested the Supreme Court to stay the lower court’s ruling against the ban on transgender-identifying troops:
The Trump administration argued in its filing that stalling the policy could hinder U.S. military readiness, and asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court’s ruling halting the ban, Fox News reported. Justices asked plaintiffs in the case to file a response by next week, “indicating that they could move quickly on the issue.”
The Trump administration’s request that the Supreme Court unblock its policy on not allowing transgender troops in the military comes after U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle “issued a preliminary injunction,” preventing the Trump administration from removing transgender troops from the military while litigation was ongoing:
U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle issued a preliminary injunction in March blocking the Trump administration from removing transgender troops from the military while the case is litigated. The Trump administration subsequently appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which declined to issue a stay of the lower court’s order.
On January 27, 2025, Trump issued an executive order, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which stated that the policy of the U.S. government is to “establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”
“This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria,” the executive order added. “This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”
On February 7, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a directive which paused the all new accessions of individuals with a history of gender dysphoria. The directive also paused “all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition.”
A Rasmussen Reports survey conducted between January 29-30 and February 2 of 1,325 likely voters found that 54 percent of likely U.S. voters approve of Trump’s executive order to ban transgender troops from military service, including 38 percent who strongly approve of the policy.
The survey found that 41 percent disapprove of discharging transgender military service members, along with 30 percent who strongly disapprove of the policy.
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