The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow its policy restricting many transgender people from serving in the military to take effect.
In filings Thursday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the high court to put on hold orders from lower courts blocking the administration from enforcing the ban nationwide.
The request from the Justice Department comes after the administration asked the Supreme Court last month to fast-track a ruling on the Trump administration’s transgender military ban before a federal appeals court has weighed in.
In urging the Supreme Court to take up the case, the Trump administration said it “involves an issue of imperative public importance: the authority of the U.S. military to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed forces.” Francisco asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay only if the justices reject the administration’s request to take up challenges to the ban this term.
In the filing with the court Thursday, Francisco lamented the frequency with which U.S. district court judges issue nationwide injunctions blocking the Trump administration’s policies, saying the dispute over the transgender military ban is part of a “growing trend.”
“In less than two years, federal courts have issued 25 of them, blocking a wide range of significant policies involving national security, national defense, immigration and domestic issues,” he wrote.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit have heard arguments in cases challenging President Trump’s policy, though neither court has issued rulings.
Trump announced via Twitter in July 2017 that transgender troops would not be permitted to serve in the military in any capacity and subsequently issued an order barring most transgender people from military service.
Transgender troops and LGBT rights organizations sued and have been successful in the lower courts, which ruled against the Trump administration and issued injunctions blocking the administration from implementing the ban.
