Washington– A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender people from military service, a divided panel of federal appeals court judges ruled Monday.
The majority opinion by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit largely upholds the March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that President Donald Trump’s executive order excluding transgender troops from military service likely violated their constitutional rights.
The department appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys for six transgender active-duty service members and two others seeking to join the military. The Court of Appeal majority decided that the injunction should be limited to plaintiffs currently serving in the military and not those seeking to join it.
US Army soldiers wait to board their CH-47 Chinook helicopter during a joint military exercise in South Korea, Sunday, March 19, 2023.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, file
The ruling will not take effect immediately, giving the administration time to ask the full appeals court to hear the case.
The US Supreme Court allowed the military ban on transgender people to take effect last year, with lawsuits continuing. Another lawsuit challenging the ban was filed in Washington state and resulted in a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the policy in that case.
In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order claiming that transgender service members’ gender identity “is inconsistent with the Soldier’s commitment to an honorable, honest, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.
In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy excluding people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress a person feels because their gender and gender identity do not match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
Justice Robert Wilkins wrote for the majority that the policy “appears to be motivated by the abstract desire to harm a politically unpopular group: people who identify as transgender.” Wilkins was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Justin Walker said the justices lacked the ability to second guess the decision to exclude transgender troops.
Walker, who was nominated by Republican Trump, wrote: “We have neither the expertise nor the authority to decide whether the military can exclude plaintiffs from its ranks. The Constitution grants that authority to Congress and the Commander-in-Chief.”
Judge Judith Rogers, nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, joined Wilkins’ opinion but also partly dissented.
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