Trump Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Trans Ban

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Trans Ban

The News

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to let the military fully enforce its ban on transgender service members.

The appeal targets a June ruling that blocked enforcement of the ban against 28 troops who sued over it.

The justices could decide whether to hear the case in the term that begins in October.

The Numbers

According to the filings, 4,240 service members across active duty, the reserves and the National Guard carry a gender dysphoria diagnosis.

The current appeal is narrower than the emergency order the Court granted last year: it concerns the 28 troops who actively sued.

Timeline

January 2025

President Trump signs an executive order barring transgender Americans from military service, reviving the policy from his first term.

February 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally issues the Pentagon ban.

2025

The Supreme Court, in an emergency ruling that carried no written reasoning, allows broader enforcement of the ban while litigation continues.

June 2026

The D.C. Circuit rules the ban is arbitrary and likely unconstitutional as applied to the service members who sued, blocking enforcement against them.

August 28, 2026

The administration goes back to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to uphold the policy outright.

Reactions

The administration argues the policy is a military-readiness judgment that courts owe deference to under longstanding rules governing personnel decisions.

The D.C. Circuit disagreed, finding the ban arbitrary and, as to the plaintiffs before it, likely unconstitutional.

CNN described the filing as the latest significant case involving transgender Americans to reach a conservative Supreme Court in recent years. The New York Times framed the executive order as part of a broader push against transgender rights.

What's Next

The Court will decide this fall whether to grant review and set oral argument.

If the justices take the case, a ruling could land by early summer.

The open questions: whether the Court treats this appeal as materially different from last year's unexplained emergency ruling, and how much weight it gives the Pentagon's readiness rationale against equal-protection claims.

More

This is the second time the policy has reached the Supreme Court. The first pass produced an emergency order with no opinion attached — meaning there is still no binding explanation from the justices on why the ban may be enforced. A grant of review here would force one.

Poll idea: Should the Supreme Court defer to the Pentagon on who is eligible to serve?

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