Washington judge blocks Trump policy banning transgender military troops

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military — the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks.

The order Thursday day from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., similarly issued an order blocking the policy last week but then put her own ruling temporarily on hold. Following further legal briefing, she declined to dissolve that injunction, which is now set to take effect Friday.

In a more limited ruling on Monday, a judge in New Jersey barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair.

Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.

In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service.

Those challenging the policy and Trump’s executive order in Tacoma include Gender Justice League, which counts transgender troops among its members, and several transgender members of the military. Among them is U.S. Navy Cmdr. Emily “Hawking” Shilling, a 42-year-old woman who has served for more than 19 years, including 60 missions as a combat aviator in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They can do the right number of pullups. They can do the right amount of pushups. They can shoot straight,” Sasha Buchert, an attorney with the civil rights law firm Lambda Legal, said after arguments Monday in Tacoma. “Yet, they’re being told they have to leave the military simply because of who they are.”

Justice Department lawyer Jason Lynch argued that the president was entitled to deference in military affairs and suggested the service ban was not as broad as the plaintiffs had suggested.

The judge, an appointee of former President George W. Bush and a former captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, peppered Lynch with questions, noting that the government had offered no evidence that allowing transgender troops to serve openly has caused any problems for military readiness.

Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.

In 2016, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members, with an exception for some of those who had already started transitioning under more lenient rules that were in effect during the Obama administration. The Supreme Court allowed that ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office.

The rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth include no such exceptions.