The Trump administration on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to expedite its ruling on transgender service members.
The administration’s request correlates to the federal case Talbott v. USA, which challenges the U.S. military’s attempted ban on transgender personnel that could negatively impact current and former members’ abilities to serve. The administration is seeking to overturn a preliminary injunction currently protecting transgender plaintiffs from being discharged while the case is litigated.
The trial is currently scheduled to begin in January 2027 in the federal district court for the District of Columbia.
The Talbott case is different from another similar federally litigated case, Ireland v. US, which includes 17 other transgender service members from the U.S. Air Force and Space Force who have all claimed they received retirement orders prior to having those orders revoked without explanation.
Military.com reached out to the Pentagon and White House for comment. The Pentagon deferred comment to the White House, which did not respond to an inquiry.
Legal Battle Surfaced in Early 2025
This legal back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the U.S. military against transgender service members began at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January 2025.
On June 30, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia granted a motion for class certification in Talbott v. USA (formerly Talbott v. Trump). The ruling allowed the plaintiffs to seek to extend protections to all transgender service members currently serving, in addition to ensuring that future rulings against the transgender military ban will apply to all members of the class.
The National Center for LGBTQ Rights and GLAD Law, which represent the plaintiffs, initially filed a motion on April 15, 2026, seeking to certify a class of all transgender individuals who are or were in active-duty service or pursuing accession in the military on or after January 28, 2025, the date Talbott v. USA was initially filed.
“We are confident the Supreme Court will affirm that the Trump administration cannot base policies on hostility toward a group of people,” Jennifer Levi, GLAD Law senior director of transgender and queer rights, said in a statement. “As the Trump administration’s own attorneys admitted, these are qualified individuals who are meeting all military standards.
“There is no reason to waste millions of taxpayer dollars to kick out thousands of highly trained, skilled, and decorated troops based on nothing but hostility and this administration’s political whims.”
Transgender members’ legal counsel called the Trump administration’s efforts on Friday part of more of the same, saying in a statement shared with Military.com that the ban is baseless and rooted in animus rather than military judgment.
They also said that discharging such members right now “would cause them extreme and irreparable harm,” especially when the confidence level in a legal judgment is in their favor—that is, the Supreme Court ruling the Trump administration’s unconstitutional at trial.
“The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to rush in and bless the expulsion of proven, decorated soldiers before a single court has issued a final judgment,” NCLR Director Shannon Minster said in a statement. “There is no circuit split, no emergency, and no merit— only a policy that multiple courts have now found was driven by prejudice rather than military need.
“The Trump administration is needlessly attempting to ram through policies that will cause irreparable harm to service members and their families. The Court should deny this request.”
The process is now in the hands of the highest Court in the land, which must decide whether to first hear the case.
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