Judge blocks Trump ban on transgender troops

WASHINGTON – A federal court on Monday blocked President Trump’s ban on transgender service members, preventing the Pentagon from overturning policies initiated by the Obama administration that would allow transgender troops to serve openly.

The order by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly temporarily prevents the Pentagon from enacting the ban that Trump announced by tweet in July. It is the first court order following challenges to Trump’s ban and can be appealed.

The court found that Trump’s ban likely means the plaintiffs — transgender troops — had their rights to due process violated.

Kollar-Kotelly found several factors that favored the plaintiffs, notably the unusual way Trump announced it and “the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs hailed the decision, saying that it means the guarantees made under the Obama administration to transgender troops, including medical care, are back in place. That also means the Pentagon must make plans to accept new transgender troops by Jan. 1, said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon.

After Trump’s surprise Twitter announcement, top Pentagon officials sought to reassure transgender troops already serving that they would not be discharge or denied medical care.

The Family Research Council blasted the decision as judicial overreach. Tony Perkins, the group’s president said, “The courts have moved beyond legislating on the invented rights of abortion and same-sex marriage to clearly usurping the constitutional authority of the executive branch.”