Trump wants justices to hear trans ban
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday once again asked the Supreme Court to bypass the usual legal process to take on another controversial issue — President Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from military service.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the justices to consolidate the challenges to the ban — which so far have been successful in lower courts — and rule on the issue in its current term.
The challenges are to the administration’s order that would prohibit transgender men and women from enlisting, possibly subject current service members to discharge and deny certain medical care.
Federal judges so far have prohibited the Trump order from being implemented.
“The decisions imposing those injunctions are wrong, and they warrant this Court’s immediate review,” Francisco wrote.
Trump in July 2017 abruptly announced the proposed ban in tweets. In announcing the change, Trump said he was “doing the military a great favor” by “coming out and just saying it.”
Challengers have argued that the directive is the result of discrimination rather than a study of how allowing transgender personnel affects the military, and lower court judges largely have agreed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear an appeal of the ruling next month.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court — with varying degrees of success —— to accept the cases before they have run through the normal appeals process. The administration argues that such cases can only be settled by the high court.
Critics say such requests put the Supreme Court in position to be seen as doing the administration’s bidding.