WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military, the latest in a series of legal setbacks for his broad agenda.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s order barring transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.
She was the second judge of the day to rule against the administration, and both decisions came within hours of an extraordinary conflict in which Trump threatened to impeach a third judge who temporarily halted deportation flights, prompting a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, delayed her order until Friday morning to allow the administration to file an appeal.
“The court understands that this opinion will spark heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are desirable outcomes,” Reyes wrote. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
Army Reserves 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, one of 14 transgender active-duty service members named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he was waiting to hear whether he would be separated from the military next week.
“What a sigh of relief,” he said. “This is everything I have ever wanted to do. This is my dream job, and I have finally got it. And I was about to pass out from fear.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stephen Miller, Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff, posted about the ruling on social media, stating, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…” “Is there no end to this madness?”
The judge granted a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys who represent others seeking to join the military.
On January 27, Trump issued an executive order claiming that transgender service members’ sexual identity “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honourable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is detrimental to military readiness.
In response to the order, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy disqualifying people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress a person experiences when their assigned gender and gender identity do not match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal ideation.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that Trump’s order violates transgender people’s Fifth Amendment right to equal protection.
Government lawyers argue that military officials have broad discretion in deciding how to assign and deploy service members without judicial oversight.
Reyes stated that she did not take lightly her decision to issue an injunction against Trump’s order, noting that “judicial overreach is no less pernicious than executive overreach.” However, she stated that each branch of government was responsible for providing checks and balances for the others, and that the court “therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day.”
Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they account for less than 1% of all active-duty service members.
In 2016, the Defence Department implemented a policy allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in office, the Republican issued a directive banning transgender service members. The Supreme Court allowed the ban to go into effect. When Democratic President Joe Biden took office, he repealed the law.
According to Hegseth’s policy dated February 26, service members or applicants for military service who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
An Army Reserves platoon leader from Pennsylvania, an Army major who received a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan, and a Navy Sailor of the Year award winner are among the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s order.
“The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed—some risking their lives—to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them,” said Reyes.
Their attorneys, from the National Centre for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law, stated that transgender troops “seek nothing more than the opportunity to continue dedicating their lives to defending the Nation.”
“Yet these accomplished servicemembers are now subject to an order that says they must be separated from the military based on a characteristic that has no bearing on their proven ability to do the job,” the lawsuit is lawyers wrote. “This is a stark and reckless reversal of policy that denigrates honourable transgender servicemembers, disrupts unit cohesion, and weakens our military.”
According to government attorneys, the Defence Department has a history of disqualifying people from military service based on physical or emotional impairments, including mental health conditions.
“In any context other than the one at issue in this case, DoD’s professional military judgement about the risks of allowing individuals with physical or emotional impairments to serve in the military would be virtually unquestionable,” the lawyers wrote.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that Trump’s order fits into his administration’s pattern of discrimination against transgender people.
Federal judges in Seattle and Baltimore have both halted Trump’s executive order, which prohibits federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender youth under the age of 19. A judge last month blocked prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy in accordance with another Trump order.
Trump also signed orders that establish new guidelines for how schools can teach about gender and intend to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
“From its first days, this administration has moved to strip protections from transgender people across multiple domains — including housing, social services, schools, sports, healthcare, employment, international travel, and family life,” the lawsuit is attorneys wrote.
Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, enlisted in March 2024 as an openly transgender person after fighting for nearly nine years to join the military. He claimed that while his fellow soldiers mocked him for being much older than other recruits, they never treated him differently because he was transgender. Talbott anticipates his colleagues being “pretty excited that I get to stay.”
“Now I can go back to focussing on what is really important, which is the mission,” said Talbott, a platoon leader for a military policing unit.
