UPDATE 1-U.S. top court lets Trump transgender troop restrictions take effect
Liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have kept the injunctions in place blocking the policy. The justices refused the administration's request for them to decide the merits of the legal fight even before a California-based federal appeals court already considering the matter is given a chance to rule. The lawsuits challenging the policy were filed in 2017 by civil liberties and gay and transgender rights groups on behalf of current transgender military service members, including some deployed overseas with decades of experience in the armed forces, and transgender people aspiring to join the military.
Trump in 2017 announced a plan to ban transgender people from the military, moving to reverse a policy announced a year earlier under Democratic former President Barack Obama allowing them for the first time to serve openly and receive medical care to transition genders. Trump, whose administration also has taken other steps to limit the rights of transgender Americans, cited the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" of having transgender military personnel.
Trump in March 2018 announced he would endorse a plan by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that replaced the ban on all transgender people. The revised policy would ban the service of transgender people who seek or have undergone gender transition steps. It also would ban under certain circumstances transgender people who experience gender dysphoria, a condition the American Psychiatric Association defines as clinically significant distress due to "a conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender" and the individual's gender identity. Federal courts blocked the administration's policy, finding that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Various injunctions allowed transgender troops to join the armed forces as of Jan. 1, 2018.
Though another injunction issued by a judge in Maryland was not on appeal, the administration said in court papers the high court's action would apply to that one, too. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
- READ MORE ON:
- Supreme court
- United States Constitution
- Washington- D.C.
- Barack Obama
- Speeches of Barack Obama
- Kirsten Gillibrand
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Distribution of wealth
- Mike Pompeo
- Patrick M. Shanahan
- Rajasthan High Court
- Gauhati High Court
- Allahabad High Court
- US Supreme Court
- appeals court
- military service members
- Sonia Sotomayor
- Stephen Breyer
- Elena Kagan
- Jim Mattis
ALSO READ
''High Court rules sleep is a fundamental human need, criticizes ED for questioning senior citizen late at night''
Important case to be heard in Delhi High Court on Monday
Kerala High Court CJ hospitalised due to uneasiness during visit to Mahakaleshwar temple in MP
Kodwa welcomes high court ruling dismissing application by boxing promoters
Jharkhand High Court denies bail to 2018 gangrape convict