In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today allowed the enforcement of President Trump’s ban on transgender people from the military. The Trump administration was earlier blocked from implementing the policy by lower courts; today’s ruling lifts those injunctions while the legal battle continues.
The split was partisan: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh pemitted the restrictions to go into effect, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in the minority.
Under the ban, transgender people are permitted to serve only if they do not seek to transition and do not suffer from gender dysphoria. Some post-transition trans people may continue to serve, a distinction that the conservative justices highlighted in asserting the prohibition was not a “blanket ban.”