A divided US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's ban on transgender military personnel to take effect while litigation plays out, putting thousands of troops at risk of dismissal.
The ruling -- which the court's three liberal justices opposed — is a significant victory for Trump, who has made rolling back transgender rights a major part of his second term in office, and has railed against judges who blocked parts of his agenda.
Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation — which filed the lawsuit that had resulted in a lower court temporarily blocking the implementation of the ban -- slammed the Supreme Court's decision.
The ruling "is a devastating blow to transgender servicemembers who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation's defense," the organizations said in a statement .
"Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down," they said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hailed the ruling as "another MASSIVE victory in the Supreme Court," saying in a post on X that Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth "are restoring a military that is focused on readiness and lethality — not DEI or woke gender ideology."
Hegseth meanwhile responded to the news with a post on his personal X account that said: "No More Trans @ DoD."
In a January 27 executive order, Trump stated that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."
The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent transgender people from joining.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow the ban to take effect means thousands of currently serving troops could be removed from the ranks.
The restrictions in the Pentagon memo are aimed at those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria -- of whom there were 4,240 serving in the military as of late last year, according to a senior defense official — as well as those who have a history of the condition or exhibit symptoms of it.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.
The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama's second term as president.
Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017. AFP
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