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US Supreme Court allows Trump military transgender ban | US Supreme Court allows Trump military transgender ban |
(35 minutes later) | |
The United States Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military. | The United States Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military. |
The court voted 5-4 to grant a Trump administration request to lift injunctions blocking the policy while challenges continue in lower courts. | The court voted 5-4 to grant a Trump administration request to lift injunctions blocking the policy while challenges continue in lower courts. |
The four liberal judges on the court opposed the ruling. | The four liberal judges on the court opposed the ruling. |
The policy prohibits "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from serving. | The policy prohibits "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from serving. |
What is the transgender policy? | |
The president announced on Twitter in 2017 that the country would no longer "accept or allow" transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption". | The president announced on Twitter in 2017 that the country would no longer "accept or allow" transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption". |
Former defence secretary Jim Mattis refined the policy to limit it to transgender individuals with a history of gender dysphoria, or when a person's biological sex and identity does not match. | |
He said the new policy would make exceptions for several hundred transgender people already serving openly or willing to serve "in their biological sex". | |
There are currently some 8,980 active duty transgender troops, according to Department of Defence data analysed by the Palm Center, a public policy nonprofit. | There are currently some 8,980 active duty transgender troops, according to Department of Defence data analysed by the Palm Center, a public policy nonprofit. |
Gen Mattis in his memo argued that "by its very nature, military service requires sacrifice," and that those who serve "voluntarily accept limitations on their personal liberties". | |
The move is a reversal of an Obama administration policy that ruled transgender Americans could serve openly in the military as well as obtain funding for gender re-assignment surgery. | |
The battle continues | |
This is just one Supreme Court action - and it's a procedural move, not a formal court opinion - but it may be a sign that a conservative majority sympathetic to presidential powers and prerogatives is flexing its muscles. | |
The Trump administration, frustrated that lower-court judges had again blocked implementation of one of its policy decisions, asked the justices to step in and clear the path. | |
The White House wanted a quick ruling because, it said, allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military presented "too great a risk to military effectiveness". | |
By a bare majority, the court complied. | |
Although the justices did not entirely bypass the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which the president has tried to paint as a bastion of liberal judges, they did the next best thing for the president. | |
They permitted the transgender ban to go into effect while the legal fight, which could last years, grinds on. | |
For the past two years, the president's opponents - locked out of national power until recently - have looked to the judicial system as a last line of defence. | |
As Tuesday clearly showed, however, those defences are only as strong as a majority Supreme Court says they are. | |
What are the legal challenges? | |
Several trial judges around the country had issued injunctions blocking the ban. | |
One injunction was reversed in a federal appeals court earlier this month, with a three-judge panel ruling the policy was not a "blanket ban" on transgender troops, and so the courts should defer to the executive branch's military decisions. | |
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Carla Gleason said in a statement that the military treats "all transgender persons with respect and dignity" and the new policy was "based on professional military judgement". | |
She said the "proposed policy is NOT a ban on service by transgender persons. It is critical that [the defence department] be permitted to implement personnel policies that it determines are necessary to ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world." | |
The Trump administration had also appealed for an expedited ruling on the case, which the Supreme Court declined to take up. | |
While Mr Trump's rationale for banning transgender troops was financial, according to estimates by the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank working with the US Armed Forces, transition-related healthcare costs are between $2.4m (£1.8m) and $8.4m per year. | While Mr Trump's rationale for banning transgender troops was financial, according to estimates by the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank working with the US Armed Forces, transition-related healthcare costs are between $2.4m (£1.8m) and $8.4m per year. |
In 2017, defence data viewed by the Palm Center indicates that cost was in fact lower, at $2.2m. | In 2017, defence data viewed by the Palm Center indicates that cost was in fact lower, at $2.2m. |
What is reaction? | |
The top court's ruling has sparked outrage and frustration online. | |
Charlotte Clymer, a transgender Army veteran, tweeted: "This is a hateful and cowardly policy." | |
Others, however, said the ban just meant transgender troops must "conform to dress code/physical standards like everyone else". | |
Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticise the Republican administration. California senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris called for a reversal of the policy. | |
Her fellow senator, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, echoed similar sentiments. |