The Trump administration says US District Judge Benjamin Settle usurped executive authority by blocking its efforts to remove gender-confused soldiers.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and let it enforce its effort to remove soldiers afflicted with gender dysphoria from the U.S. Armed Forces, after a series of federal judges blocked it as "unconstitutional."
“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.
On Thursday, the Trump administration submitted an emergency petition for 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.”
“The injunction against the 2025 policy irreparably harms the government by forcing it to maintain a policy that the Department has found to be inconsistent with ‘the best interests of the Military Services’ and with ‘the interests of national security,’” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said. “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.”
In the first Trump administration, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis led a review which 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."
