(WASHINGTON) — If allowed to go into effect, the Trump administration’s new policy on transgender soldiers would be a “de facto blanket prohibition” that seeks “to eradicate transgender service,” a federal judge wrote Thursday in issuing a preliminary injunction against the policy.
In a 65-page opinion issued late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle became the second federal judge to block the policy, which he described as discriminatory and disconnected from the goals of “military readiness, unit cohesion, lethality, or any of the other touchstone phrases long used to exclude various groups from service.”
The Justice Department filed notice Friday that it would appeal the judge’s decision.
While the Trump administration had argued that the judiciary should defer to military leadership, Judge Settle — who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush near the height of the War on Terror — said he is unable to condone a “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy.”
“The government falls well short of its burden to show that banning transgender service is substantially related to achieving unit cohesion, good order, or discipline. Although the Court gives deference to military decision making, it would be an abdication to ignore the government’s flat failure to address plaintiffs’ uncontroverted evidence that years of open transgender service promoted these objectives,” he wrote.
The group of seven active-duty service members who brought the lawsuit argued that the policy “purposefully discriminates” against soldiers based on their gender identity — an argument that Justice Department lawyers attempted to rebut by reframing the question as a medical issue, impacting only people who suffer gender dysphoria. Judge Settle was unconvinced, writing that the policy “uses gender dysphoria as a proxy to ban all transgender service members.”
“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” he wrote, finding that each of the plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed by the policy, which would curtail their military service.
Judge Settle also called out the Trump administration for seemingly disregarding the service history of the transgender soldiers who brought the case, such as the Commander Emily Shilling, a naval aviator with 19 years of service who flew 60 combat missions before becoming a Navy test pilot.
“There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit’s cohesion, or to the military’s lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service,” Settle wrote.
“There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender,” wrote the judge.
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