U.S Supreme Court allowed to continue Trump’s Transgender Military Ban

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The U.S Supreme Court has allowed the ban on transgender people from President Donald Trump who are serving in the U.S military and it will take effect on Tuesday. The Hill reported that the justices stayed district court injunctions that had prohibited the administration’s policy from going into place but did not say the nation’s highest court would assess the legality of the policy. Litigation over the policy prevents transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition from serving in the U.S military, will continue in lower courts.

The New York Times reported that the policy allows exceptions for several hundred people who are already openly transgender and those who agree to serve in the sex they were assigned at birth. CNN has indicated that at least 8,980 active-duty service members were identified as transgender in 2016. The Washington Post reported that the 5 conservative justices on the court, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh were opposed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, according to The Washington Post.

A Pentagon official informed The Washington Post that the policy of the Trump administration is NOT a ban on service by transgender persons. It is critical that DoD is permitted to implement personnel policies that it determines are essential to ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world. The proposed policy of DoD is based on professional military judgment and will ensure that the U.S Armed Forces remain the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world.

In June 2016, the Obama administration announced it would end the ban that prohibited openly transgender service members from being in the military. Trump first announced the policy of reversing the Obama directive and barring transgender people from serving in the military on Twitter in July 2017.

Critics have blasted the Trump administration’s policy, calling it cruel.

As a military veteran and transgender American, I am heartbroken. This is a hateful and cowardly policy based on the terrible reasoning of a White House that has spent the past two years constantly seeking to harm transgender people. There is no excuse for this. https://t.co/laYFeAgWcv

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) January 22, 2019

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1087727482684477442

https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1087729026112864256

Critics also took aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who prevented the legislative body from considering a Supreme Court nominee proposed by President Barack Obama. The 44th president had selected Judge Merrick Garland to serve on the court, but McConnell said that justice shouldn’t be nominated until the next president took office.