The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the U.S. military to discharge roughly two dozen transgender service members in a case that could decide the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s transgender troop ban.
The high court could decide to hear the case in the term that begins in October.
“The importance of the issue lies in what it concerns: the authority of the federal government to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a petition to the high court.
Soon after taking officein January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to remove transgender troops from the military, saying that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
The Supreme Court in May 2025 allowed the ban to move forward on a temporary basis, as litigation plays out in lower courts. The case now before the high court involves 28 transgender service members who argue the ban violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. The outcome could decide whether that group of troops may continue to serve, but also may affect the status of other transgender service members. There are around 4,000 service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria, The Washington Post has previously reported.
Twenty-five of the troops challenging the ban are on administrative leave, said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs. Three of the service members are currently serving.
“The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to rush in and bless the expulsion of proven, decorated soldiers before a single court has issued a final judgment,” Minter said in a statement.
In June, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the ban likely violates the plaintiffs’ equal protection rights.
The ban “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender,” Judge Robert L. Wilkins, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote for the panel’s 2-1 majority.
Wilkins added the policy is “both arbitrary and based upon animus.”
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to reverse that decision, saying the D.C. circuit erred in its constitutional analysis.
Sauer wrote in Friday’s petition that “any attempt to infer animus from references to ‘honesty,’ ‘humility,’ ‘integrity,’ and ‘false gender identity’ is misplaced.”
During a speech at the Iowa State Fair in August, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a transphobic slur when referring to military policies, according to a video posted by CNN.
The ban was one of a handful of policies by the Trump administration targeting transgender people. In his first days in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring that there are only two sexes — male and female — while decrying “gender ideology.” That outlook has affected enforcement of discrimination claims by transgender workers and has prompted probes into colleges for allowing transgender athletes to compete in competitive sports.
The Supreme Court in June upheld state bans on transgender athletesplaying on women’s sports teams and, in March, struck down a Colorado ban on “conversion therapy” for gay and trans minors. They were the among the latest setbacks at the court for transgender people.
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