Today
Judge Hopes to Rule Next Week on Trump Order Banning Transgender People from Military Service
Michael Kunzelman READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A federal judge said Wednesday that she hopes to rule next week on whether to block President Donald Trump's administration from banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.
At the end of a daylong hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said it is her "strong hope" that she will issue a decision next Tuesday or Wednesday. Reyes acknowledged that her ruling probably won't be the "last stop in this train's journey," given the near-certainty of an appeal.
"I just have to do the best I can with the evidence in front of me," she said.
Reyes spent most of Wednesday's hearing peppering a government attorney with questions about a new Defense Department policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service.
Gender dysphoria is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don't match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
The new policy stems from a Jan. 27 executive order by President Donald Trump that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members "conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life."
Roughly 2,000 transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.
Reyes frequently sounded skeptical of the administration's motives and rationale as she challenged Justice Department attorney Jason Manion to defend the order and policy. She called it a "Don't Tell" policy, a reference to the military's outdated " Don't Ask, Don't Tell " policy against LGBTQ service members.
"They have to essentially be in hiding while in service," Reyes said of transgender troops.
The judge said the Defense Department has spent roughly $5.2 million annually over the past decade to provide medical care to treat gender dysphoria – a miniscule percentage of the military's multi-billion dollar budget. As a point of comparison, Reyes noted that the military spends around $42 million per year on medication treating erectile dysfunction.
"It's not even a rounding error, right?" she asked.
"If it's a cost per service member, it does matter," Manion said.
The plaintiffs who sued to block Trump's order include an Army Reserves platoon leader from Pennsylvania, an Army major who was awarded a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and a Sailor of the Year award winner serving in the Navy. Their attorneys contend that Trump's order violates transgender people's rights to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.
Government lawyers argue that military officials have broad discretion to decide how to assign and deploy servicemembers without judicial interference.
