
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let it enforce ban on transgender service members for now
CNN
The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to let it begin enforcing a ban on transgender service members, escalating a fight over a controversial policy that has faced numerous legal setbacks in recent weeks.
The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to let it begin enforcing a ban on transgender service members, escalating a fight over a controversial policy that has faced numerous legal setbacks in recent weeks. The emergency appeal thrusts the high court into another politically charged dispute over a key aspect of Trump’s agenda. It comes as the justices have increasingly been pressed by the administration to unlock various parts of his agenda that have been held up by lower courts reviewing the legality of the initiatives. The military ban was announced by Trump earlier this year and would have taken effect late last month, but several lower courts issued rulings against it before it could be implemented. In the case at hand, a federal judge in Washington state decided that the policy likely violated the constitutional rights of a number of active-duty transgender service members and an individual who wants to join the military. Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices that the Pentagon should be allowed to enforce the ban while the legal challenge is resolved, arguing US District Judge Benjamin Settle had overstepped by wading into military policy. “The district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the Department’s professional military judgments are owed,” Sauer wrote.

Roughly 500 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized to respond to the protests in Los Angeles, according to three people familiar with the matter, and will join the thousands of National Guard troops that were activated by President Donald Trump over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or LA’s mayor.