Transgender Servicemembers in Talbott Urge the Supreme Court to Continue to Prevent Implementation of the Transgender Military Ban

Brief calls out harm of “unprecedented” and “unAmerican” plan to target transgender servicemembers for immediate discharge; even Trump’s short-lived 2018 ban never resulted in more than a temporary pause in recruitment

ВАШИНГТОН, округ Колумбия. Сегодня истцы, 32 трансгендерных военнослужащих и новобранцев, в Талботт против США (ранее Тэлботт против Трампа) filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States, urging the Court to leave multiple preliminary injunctions in place preventing implementation of President Trump’s transgender military ban.

On April 18, the Trump administration filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court в United States v. Shilling, requesting that it stay the preliminary injunction in that case, which was put in place by the courts to prevent irreparable harms associated with the ban while the case is being heard in court. Both the constitutionality and lack of any rational reason or data underpinning the ban have come under fire during this litigation. Past filings have indicated there are currently thousands of distinguished transgender servicemembers in critical roles who have deployed globally and earned numerous commendations.

On March 18, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Ana Reyes выдал общенациональный предварительный запрет blocking implementation of the transgender military ban in Тэлботт. In a forceful order in which she held that the ban undermines national security and is likely unconstitutional, calling it “soaked with animus and dripping with pretext.” That injunction halted implementation of the ban and protected transgender servicemembers and recruits from its significant harms while the future of the ban is being decided in court. These harms include servicemembers being removed from deployments, denied commissions and promotions, placed on administrative leave, denied medically needed care, and ultimately being placed in involuntary separation proceedings, a process used to address instances of misconduct. On March 28, U.S. District Court Judge for the 9й Circuit Benjamin H. Settle issued a second nationwide preliminary injunction в Шиллинг против Трампа.

Ведущие адвокаты в Тэлботт против Трампа, Старший директор по правам трансгендеров и квиров, GLAD Law Дженнифер Леви и NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter, issued the following statements:

«Правительство не представило и не может предоставить никаких рациональных оснований для оправдания систематических чисток среди трансгендерных военнослужащих, которые соответствуют всем стандартам. Более того, правительство фактически признало, что каждый истец, находящийся на действительной службе, является порядочным, дисциплинированным и годным к службе», — заявили в ведомстве. Старший директор по правам трансгендеров и квиров, GLAD Law Дженнифер Леви. “In the absence of reason or data, the government has attempted to frame this insidious ban as a run-of-the-mill medical policy. But the naked animus within the language of the ban—and its focus on lobbing insults at the ‘honesty,’ ‘discipline,’ and ‘integrity’ of all transgender servicemembers makes clear that the ban is meant to describe people, not a medical condition. Existing policies do not describe a person with diabetes or a heart condition as dishonest or lacking integrity.”

“The government falsely claims its request for a stay would only require the Supreme Court to do what has been done before, when in reality, it is asking for a shocking, unprecedented purge of thousands of current servicemembers for a reason unrelated to their ability to serve,” said Юридический директор NCLR Шеннон Минтер. “This type of mass purge has never before happened in our nation’s history. It would cause an avalanche of irreparable harms that would stain the records of thousands of our nation’s heroes who have been deployed and served around the globe in critical missions. There is no precedent for such a devastating and wholly un-American betrayal of dedicated troops.”

Тэлботт против Трампа was the first legal challenge filed against President Trump’s recent transgender military ban executive order. The case is on behalf of 32 plaintiffs and was brought by LGBTQ+ legal groups GLAD Law и НЦЛР with pro bono legal counsel from Wardenski P.C. and Kropf Moseley PLCC.

GLAD Law’s Jennifer Levi и NCLR’s Shannon Minter, the ведущие адвокаты в этом деле, сами являются трансгендерами, и у каждого из них более тридцати лет опыта ведения знаковых и ключевых судебных дел ЛГБТК+. Вместе Леви и Минтер возглавили судебную борьбу в 2017 году против запрета на службу трансгендеров в армии. Доу против Трампа и Стокман против Трампа, который также добился общенационального предварительного судебного запрета, блокирующего этот запрет.

A link to the full amicus brief is available here.