The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court on Thursday morning, asking the justices to allow it to enforce a 2025 Department of Defense policy prohibiting individuals who are transgender from serving in the U.S. military. On March 27, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle prohibited the government from enforcing its policy anywhere in the United States.
Shortly after U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed his request with the court, the justices instructed lawyers representing the challengers to file their response by Thursday, May 1, at 5 p.m.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that revoked an order by then-President Joe Biden that had allowed transgender members of the armed forces to serve openly. Soon after that, Trump issued another order that required Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to implement a ban on “individuals with gender dysphoria” – that is, psychological distress caused by a conflict between the sex someone is assigned at birth and that person’s gender identity.
In February, the Department of Defense issued a policy that, subject to narrow exceptions, disqualifies anyone who has gender dysphoria or has undergone medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria from serving in the military.
The individual plaintiffs are seven current