President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military was blocked on Monday by a judge appointed by former President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, preventing the Pentagon from moving forward with Trump’s executive order. In January, Trump signed an executive order, which determined that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
Prior to Tuesday’s preliminary injunction, the Department of Defense had been instructed to revise its pronoun policies and medical standards for military service. Trump’s executive order stated, “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.”
Last month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth implemented a policy in response to Trump’s executive order, noting that military service members and potential military service applicants who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
In her ruling against Trump’s transgender ban for the U.S. military, Reyes wrote, “The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes.” The judge added, “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
According to Fox News, Reyes delayed her ruling until Friday morning to provide the Trump administration time to appeal the decision.
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The Associated Press reported that thousands of transgender individuals currently serve in the U.S. military; however, the outlet noted that transgender individuals currently represent less than 1% of active-duty service members.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Reyes claimed that the plaintiffs in the case against the Trump administration “face a violation of their constitutional rights, which constitutes irreparable harm.”
“Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” Reyes added.
Following the Biden-appointed judge’s decision on Tuesday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tweeted, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?”
In another post on X, formerly Twitter, Miller addressed the continued attempts by federal judges to block the president’s executive orders, saying, “Unelected rogue judges are trying to steal years of time from a 4 year term. It’s the most egregious theft one can imagine: robbing the vote and voice of the American People.”
