Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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1 Comments
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The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a 6-3 decision that the Trump administration can continue to enforce a ban on transgender-identifying individuals in the military while court cases against the ban proceed. The ruling is a victory for President Donald Trump, who promised to eliminate radical gender ideology from the federal government and armed forces during his campaign last year.
The ruling fell along ideological lines, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson voting against the ban. Trump originally banned transgender individuals from the military in an executive order on January 27. That order was blocked by a federal judge two months later, but the Court’s decision has overturned that judge’s ruling.
“Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” Trump said in the executive order. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The president explained in the executive order that “military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty.”
Judge Benjamin H. Settle blocked the administration from enforcing the ban on March 27. He wrote at the time that any claimed hardship that the military “may face in the meantime pales in comparison to the hardships imposed on transgender service members and otherwise qualified transgender accession candidates.” He was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington by George W. Bush in 2007.
The Trump administration appealed the decision, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency motion in April. The Supreme Court then ruled Wednesday that the ban could go into effect as litigation proceeds.
Judge Ana Reyes made an earlier attempt to block the transgender ban on March 18, but the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals paused her ruling shortly after on March 28. She was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2023 by Joe Biden.
The Department of Defense shared a clip on X from Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining that the administration is moving forward with its plans to eliminate left-wing ideology from the military.
“We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind,” Hegseth said in the clip shared on X. “No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s***.”
Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt praised the Supreme Court’s decision on X.
“An activist judge tried to block President Trump’s commonsense policy to ban transgender people from serving in the military,” he said. “Luckily, sanity prevailed. If you can be disqualified for asthma or a peanut allergy, the military shouldn’t have to indulge a man who thinks he’s a woman.”
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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