President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday appealed a new court order that temporarily barred the implementation of his ban on transgender troops serving in the military, a court filing said.
Judge Benjamin Settle issued the temporary injunction on Thursday, blocking the ban that Trump ordered in late January shortly after taking office for his second term.
Settle’s order followed one issued last week by Judge Ana Reyes that likewise temporarily blocks the ban. The Trump administration has already appealed that order, which is set to go into effect on Friday evening.
A third judge issued a more limited temporary restraining order earlier this week barring the government from dismissing two specific plaintiffs from the military for being transgender.
In a January 27 executive order, Trump stated that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent others from joining.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.
