A federal judge blocked the implementation of President Donald Trump’s proposed ban of transgender people from the military on Tuesday, saying the president’s executive order was “soaked in animus.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes barred the Department of Defense from beginning any implementation of a ban on transgender servicemembers as lawsuits from current and potential members of the military work their way through the courts.
In her ruling, Reyes eviscerated the Trump administration attorneys’ arguments, saying claims of transgender servicemembers harming military readiness and effectiveness were just echoes of similar arguments used to discriminate against women, minorities and gay people.
“‘[Fill in the blank] is not fully capable and will hinder combat effectiveness; [fill in the blank] will disrupt unit cohesion and so diminish military effectiveness; allowing [fill in the blank] to serve will undermine training, make it impossible to recruit successfully, and disrupt military order,’” she wrote. “Today, however, our military is stronger and our Nation is safer for the millions of such blanks (and all other persons) who serve.”
In her ruling, Reyes also countered the government’s arguments that judges should defer to the reasoning of the Department of Defense in military matters. She said that the court would not “blindly” defer to thin arguments “based on conjecture.”
“The law does not demand that the Court rubber-stamp illogical judgments,” she wrote.
Ultimately, Reyes ruled that the transgender ban was a blindingly obvious violation of the Equal Protection Clause and she tore into the administration for the language used in Trump’s order and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policy memo.
“Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” she wrote.
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