A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from banning transgender Americans from continuing to serve in the military on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to refocus the military on lethality.
Last month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed senior leadership to identify transgender-identifying people within their branches in 30 days in preparation for removing them from service. The policy, set to take effect March 26, followed President Donald Trump’s executive order barring gender-dysphoric people from joining the military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of Washington, D.C., put a stop to the administration’s efforts, claiming the exclusion of transgender troops from serving likely violates their constitutional rights and leads to irreparable harm.
“The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed—some risking their lives—to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them,” Reyes wrote in her 79-page memorandum opinion.
While delivering a scathing rebuke, she gave the administration until Friday morning to appeal the ruling. Depending on what happens next, the case could eventually head to the Supreme Court.
The Department of Justice argued that the federal government isn’t necessarily preventing transgender-identifying people from serving in the military — only that individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are prohibited and pronoun usage inconsistent with one’s biological sex is discouraged.
The Trump administration says gender dysphoria is “incompatible” with the mental and physical rigor that military service demands because the illness comes with certain “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints,” according to the Pentagon memo dated February 26.
Before issuing her decision, Reyes held two hearings in which she scolded attorneys with the Justice Department for failing to address their “animus” toward transgender-identifying people. After the first hearing, the Justice Department filed a complaint accusing the Biden-appointed judge of misconduct and clear bias against its lawyers.
Reyes also questioned the Justice Department on how it could be sure that the policy wouldn’t shut out transgender people from the military.
“How can I say that a policy is limited, when on its own terms, it could include almost any transgender person?” she asked during the second hearing last week.
The judge ultimately sided with the plaintiffs, a group of transgender troops, recognizing the awards they received for their services.
“The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes,” she wrote. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
Reyes is one of many federal judges who have halted the Trump administration from enacting its agenda since January.
A separate judge overseeing a case involving the deportation of Venezuelan illegal immigrants, who are believed to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang, temporarily blocked the administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act until the court decides whether the use of the 1798 law is illegal. The White House denounced the order for impeding executive authority, with Trump even calling for that particular judge’s impeachment.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller criticized Tuesday’s order involving the Pentagon, posting on X: “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?”