An American judge in the state in Washington has banned the maintenance of President Donald Trump’s order that prohibits transgender people from serving in the military – the second nationwide order against the policy in so many weeks.
The order on Thursday day of US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma comes in a case brought by several long -term transgender military members saying that the ban is offended and discriminatory, and that their shooting causes their careers and reputation lasting damage.
US district judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC, has similarly issued an order that blocked the policy last week, but temporarily put her own decision at stake. After further legal information sessions, she refused to dissolve the order, which is now in effect on Friday.
In a more limited verdict on Monday, a New Jersey judge prevented the air force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed that their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could restore.
Trump signed an executive order on January 27, claiming that the sexual identity of members of the transgender services is “in conflict with the dedication of a soldier to an honorable, honest and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.
In response, defense secretary Pete Hegseeth issued a policy that presumably disqualified transgender people of military service.
Those who disputed the policy and Trump’s executive order in Tacoma include Gender Justice League, which counts transgender troops among its members, and several transgender members of the military. Among them is the US Navy CMDR. Emily “Hawking” Shilling, a 42-year-old woman who has served for more than 19 years, including 60 missions as a combat airplane in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“They can do the right number of pullups. They can do the right amount of pushups. They can shoot straight,” said Sasha Buchert, a lawyer at civil rights -wets firm Lambda Legal, after the arguments in Tacoma on Monday. “Yet they are told that they should leave the army simply because of who they are.”
The lawyer of the Justice Department, Jason Lynch, argued that the president was entitled to reverence in military matters and suggested that the service ban is not as wide as the plaintiffs proposed.
The judge, an appointment of former President George W. Bush and a former captain in the US Army Advocate General Corps, peppered Lynch with questions, pointing out that the government did not provide any evidence that allowing transgender troops openly caused to military readiness.
Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of members of the active service.
In 2016, a policy of the Department of Defense allowed transgender people to openly serve in the military. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the Republican issued an assignment to ban members of the Transgender Services, with an exception for some of those who had already started to move, among other light rules that were in force during the Obama administration. The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he accepted office.
The rules imposed by defense by Pete Hegseeth, secretary of defense, contain no such exceptions.
