erininthemorning.com
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court gave the green light for the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service to take effect—staying lower court rulings that had found the policy blatantly unconstitutional. Those courts had determined the ban violated equal protection guarantees and was driven by anti-transgender animus, not military necessity. The policy brands transgender people as inherently “dishonorable” and “undisciplined” for no reason other than their gender identity. With the high court’s decision, the administration now has license to purge transgender service members—an alarming signal that the Supreme Court may be willing to overlook constitutional protections for trans people in future cases.
Only three justices—Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor—dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision to let the Trump administration begin purging transgender service members. The ruling followed the Ninth Circuit’s refusal to stay a lower court decision that had blocked the ban, with the district judge finding it likely unconstitutional and a violation of due process. That judge condemned the policy for imposing “demeaning, cruel, and unsupported badges of infamy” on transgender troops. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has now cleared the way for the ban to take effect while the case proceeds, granting an expedited hearing on the dubious claim that the presence of transgender people in the military constitutes a national emergency.