Sunday, August 30, 2026 - The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold its policy banning transgender Americans from serving in the military, the latest significant case involving trans Americans to reach the conservative court in recent years.
Days after taking office last year, Trump signed an
executive order directing the Pentagon to ban transgender service members as
incompatible with military service. The administration is appealing a ruling
from a federal court in Washington, DC, that sided with a group of trans
Americans who were already serving.
“The
authority of the US military to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed
forces is a matter of exceptional importance,” US Solicitor General D. John
Sauer told the Supreme Court, according to a copy of the appeal reviewed by CNN
that has not yet been publicly docketed.
The Supreme Court will likely decide this fall whether to
hear arguments in the case. If it agrees to do so, a decision may land early
next summer.
Defense officials have said there are 4,240 service members
across active-duty, reserve, and the National Guard ranks with a diagnosis of
gender dysphoria, defined as the psychological distress an individual feels
when their gender identity differs from their gender at birth. Not every
transgender individual has gender dysphoria.
Trans Americans have faced a series of significant setbacks
at the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Earlier this year, a 6-3 majority upheld
state bans on transgender students playing on girls’ sports teams.
Last year, in another 6-3 ruling, the court let stand a
Tennessee law that banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors
seeking to transition to match their gender identity.
Trump campaigned aggressively against trans Americans in
2024 and implemented several policies once in office intended to roll back
gains made by transgender people in recent years.
The president also banned transgender Americans from joining
the military during his first term, but former President Joe Biden repealed
that policy in 2021.
Trump’s policy reached the Supreme Court last year in an emergency case, in which the court allowed the president to enforce the ban. As is often the case in emergency rulings, the court did not explain its reasoning. The three liberal justices publicly dissented from the decision, but also did not explain their position.
But since then lower courts have issued new rulings limiting the policy. A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in June upheld a block on the policy for 28 service members who sued.
Advocates say that the administration has been aggressively
pursuing separation of other trans service members.
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