President Donald Trump’s administration’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military was denied again on Wednesday by a judge appointed by former President Joe Biden. The transgender military ban had been scheduled to take effect at the Pentagon on Friday prior to the judge’s ruling.
According to Fox News, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who was appointed by Biden, ruled against the Trump administration’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military on Wednesday after requesting last week that the Department of Defense delay its original plan to implement the ban on Friday. The judge’s request came after she issued a preliminary injunction to block the Pentagon from moving forward with the transgender military ban.
Fox News reported that the Trump administration filed a motion last Friday to dissolve the Biden-appointed judge’s injunction. The Trump administration argued that the Pentagon’s policy “turns on gender dysphoria – a medical condition – and does not discriminate against trans-identifying persons as a class.”
The Trump administration also requested that the court stay the preliminary injunction pending a potential appeal if the court denied the administration’s motion to dissolve the injunction.
Reyes ruled on Wednesday that while the Military Department Identification Guidance was a new guidance, the Trump administration’s argument defending the transgender military ban was not new, according to Fox News.
READ MORE: Trump transgender military ban blocked by Biden judge
“Defendants re-emphasize their ‘consistent position that the [Hegseth] Policy is concerned with the military readiness, deployability, and costs associated with a medical condition,’” Reyes stated. “Regulating gender dysphoria is no different than regulating bipolar disorder, eating disorders, or suicidality. The Military Ban regulates a medical condition, they insist, not people. And therein lies the problem.”
Reyes added, “Gender dysphoria is not like other medical conditions, something Defendants well know. It affects only one group of people: all persons with gender dysphoria are transgender and only transgender persons experience gender dysphoria.”
According to Fox News, the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia following Wednesday’s ruling by Ryes.
Expressing criticism of the preliminary injunction Reyes previously issued to block the Trump administration’s transgender military ban, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth released a statement Saturday on X, saying, “Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”
