Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday indicated that he is willing to take a federal appeals court decision restricting his transgender military ban to the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, a divided federal appeals court panel ruled that the Trump administration, under a policy implemented by Hegseth last year, is unconstitutionally expelling troops actively serving because they are transgender. The panel, though, allowed the Pentagon to enforce its ban against transgender individuals seeking to enlist.
“See you at SCOTUS,” Hegseth wrote on the social platform X, responding to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin’s post on the ruling.
In Monday’s 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia voted that Hegseth’s order to expel transgender service members from the armed forces was motivated by animus against them, and therefore constituted a violation of their constitutional rights.
U.S. Circuit judges Judith Rogers and Robert Wilkins, who were appointed by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, respectively, were in the majority. U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, whom President Trump nominated to the federal appeals court in 2020, voted to let the administration fully enforce its ban.
Shortly after he returned to office, Trump signed an executive order stating that transgender individuals “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The order cited the “hormonal and surgical interventions” that transgender individuals undertake, along with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” for arguing that transgender identity is incompatible with military service.
“For the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty,” the order added. “The Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards to ensure our military can deploy, fight, and win, including in austere conditions and without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”
In the wake of Monday’s ruling, the administration can appeal to the full D.C. Circuit or directly to the Supreme Court. When a separate challenge to the policy reached the high court last year, the justices allowed the ban to resume in an emergency ruling — without explanation.
