The Trump administration made a move to bypass the appeals court system Friday by asking the Supreme Court to take up three lawsuits challenging restrictions on transgender military service.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed petitions in three cases, asking the Supreme Court step in before the appeals courts currently looking into them can make a ruling and claiming that lower courts’ injunctions blocking the ban are detrimental to the military.
The maneuver comes after President Trump engaged in a back-and-forth with the Judicial Branch of government this week, condemning the “total disaster” 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for its record of overturning rulings and engaging in a public fight with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on the matter.
The administration’s repeated efforts to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military began after Trump tweeted in July 2017 that the U.S. government would no longer allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity because of the “tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Pentagon spent months studying the issue and proposed modified policy that barred service by troops who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a common condition among transgender people that involves a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned sex at birth and the gender with which the individual identifies, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Mattis’ review stated that people diagnosed with gender dysphoria suffer from high rates of suicide, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. The review said treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery have not been proven to relieve those issues. This policy, which got approval from Trump, specifies that those conforming with their assigned sex can serve if they have not been diagnosed with the condition.
The Trump administration has sought the Supreme Court’s attention on this issue previously, only to back off. The government withdrew a request in September that asked the high court to block an order forcing it to release thousands of internal White House documents related to its military transgender policy. A federal district court in Washington had granted a temporary stay on the order as it weighed arguments over the release of the emails and other confidential correspondence by Trump and other officials.
The push this week comes after Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Trump’s second appointment since he took office in 2016.
Kavanaugh’s arrival shifted the court toward the Right, a new alignment that the Palm Center, an advocacy group, said last month “creates the possibility that the Supreme Court could allow the Trump administration to reinstate a ban on transgender military service.”
