The Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce a Department of Defense policy prohibiting transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. With the court’s three Democratic appointees indicating that they would have denied the Trump administration’s request, the justices paused an order by a federal judge in Washington state that had barred the government from implementing the policy anywhere in the United States.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order that allowed transgender troops to serve openly in the military. On Jan. 20 of this year, President Donald Trump revoked Biden’s order and issued another order requiring Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to put into effect a ban on “individuals with gender dysphoria” – the medical term for the psychological distress caused by a conflict between the sex someone is assigned at birth and that person’s gender identity.
On Feb. 26, the Department of Defense issued that ban, which generally disqualifies anyone who either has gender dysphoria or has undergone medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria from serving in the military. The department explained that “the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current