The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the Trump administration can enforce its removal of soldiers afflicted with gender dysphoria from the US Armed Forces.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration can enforce its removal of soldiers afflicted with gender dysphoria from the U.S. Armed Forces while a challenge to the policy on the merits works its way through lower courts.
“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified from military service,” explained a February Pentagon memo implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order on the subject. “Service members who have a history of cross-sex hormone [use] or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition, are disqualified from military service.” Waivers will considered on a case-by-case basis, “provided there is a compelling Government interest.”
In March, LGBT activist U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes issued a 79-page opinion, indefinitely blocking enforcement of the executive order, claiming it violated the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees without adequate studies to establish the policy was “substantially related to military readiness and unit cohesion." She ruled against it a second time that same month and was temporarily reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle subsequently imposed his own nationwide injunction, and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse it.
Last month, the Trump administration requested a stay from the nation’s highest court, accusing Settle of “usurping the Executive Branch’s authority to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces.”
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a brief order granting the White House’s request. The Court’s three most liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.
“The March 27, 2025 preliminary injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, case No. 2:25-cv241, 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,” the order reads. “Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.” Neither side elaborated on their reasoning.
In the first Trump administration, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis led a review that concluded, based on “extensive study by senior uniformed and civilian leaders, including combat veterans,” that troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria presented “considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality,”
In the first month of his second administration, Trump began the reversal of past presidents’ politicization of the military by reinstating soldiers who had been discharged over COVID shots with their former ranks, back pay, and benefits; and by ordering the elimination of “diversity, equity, & inclusion” (DEI) programs from the military and discharge of service members afflicted with gender confusion. The administration also banned LGBT and “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) flags from being flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities and ended observation of all identity-based “cultural awareness” months, including LGBT "pride month."
