Supreme Court reinstates Trump Administration's ban on transgender individuals serving in the military

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated the Trump administration's rule that prevents transgender people from serving in the military, overturning a federal judge's decision that had blocked the measure as violating the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

The order allows the Department of Defense to begin discharging transgender service members and deny enlistment to new applicants while the litigation continues in lower courts.

The decision, issued without signature or justification, as is customary in emergency cases, was dissented by the court's three liberal judges - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The order responds to a request from Attorney General John Sauer, who argued that the Defense Department had determined that the service of people with gender dysphoria “would undermine military effectiveness and lethality," comparing it to long-standing restrictions for other medical conditions, such as asthma and hypertension.

The ban reverses a Biden-era policy that, for the first time, allowed transgender people to serve openly in the military. A federal court in Tacoma, Washington had blocked the reversal of this policy, noting that the government failed to provide substantial evidence to justify the blanket exclusion of transgender people, arguing that it violated equal protection rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Supreme Court's order does not resolve the case definitively, but allows implementation of the ban while the lower courts continue to evaluate its decision.