If it is allowed to enter into force, the new Trump administration policy on transgender soldiers would be a “general de facto prohibition” that seeks to eradicate the transgender service, “a federal judge wrote on Thursday by issuing a preliminary judicial order against politics.
In an opinion of 65 pages issued on Thursday night, the US district judge. UU. Benjamin Settle became the second federal judge to block the policy, which he described as discriminatory and disconnected from the objectives of “military preparation, cohesion of the unit, lethality or any of the other touched stone phrases used for a long time to exclude several service groups.”
The Department of Justice filed a notice on Friday that would appeal to the judge’s decision.
While the Trump administration had argued that the Judiciary should differ from military leadership, Judge Settle, who was nominated for the Bank by President George W. Bush near the height of the war against terror, said he cannot tolerate a “policy of unreasonable, dramatic and facially unfair exclusion.”
“The Government does not reach the burden of demonstrating that prohibiting transgender service is substantially related to the achievement of cohesion of the unit, good order or discipline. Although the Court gives deference to military decision making, it would be an abdication to ignore the flat failure of the government to address the incorporated evidence of the plaintiffs” the years of the years of open transgender service promoted these objectives, “he wrote.
The group of seven members of the active service service that presented the lawsuit argued that the policy “deliberately discriminates” against soldiers based on their gender identity, an argument that the lawyers of the Department of Justice tried to refute when reformulating the question as a medical problem, affecting only people who suffer gender dysphoria. Judge Settle was not convinced, writing that politics “uses gender dysphoria as a proxy to prohibit all members of the transgender service.”
The pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, on March 3, 2022.
Joshua Roberts/Reuters
“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not a specially close question in this registry,” he wrote, discovering that each of the plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed by politics, which would reduce their military service.
Judge Settle also called the Trump administration for ignoring the history of the transgender soldiers who brought the case, such as Commander Emily Shilling, a naval aviator with 19 years of service that flew 60 combat missions before becoming a marine test pilot.
“There is no statement or evidence that she is now, or never, a detriment of the cohesion of her unit, or the lethality or preparation of the military, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service,” Settle wrote.
“There is no claim or evidence that he scheduled himself is dishonest or selfish, or that lacks humility or integrity. However, in the absence of a court order, it will be quickly discharged because it is transgender,” the judge wrote.
