The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Pentagon to enforce a ban on transgender troops, arguing that a lower court ruling blocking the policy was “gravely erroneous.”
The petition asks the high court to rule on whether the ban is constitutional and reverse a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, which prevented the Pentagon from expelling transgender service members.
“If allowed to stand, the court of appeals’ decision would represent an ‘unprecedented intervention into military affairs,’”Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the justices.
In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from the armed service, arguing their presence is harmful to military readiness.
In response to the order, War Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that would disqualify people with gender dysphoria from signing up for military service and urged active-duty transgender soldiers to voluntarily leave the service or face being forced out.
In June, the appeals court panel ruled 2-1 to largely uphold a lower court ruling that found Trump’s executive order likely violates the constitutional rights of transgender people.
The appeals court ruling only applied to the transgender plaintiffs in the case, and not those seeking to join the military.
“That gravely erroneous holding warrants this Court’s review,” Sauer argued. “The authority of the US military to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces is a matter of exceptional importance.”
“Whether the Constitution prohibits the military from exercising that authority by adopting a policy like the one here is a recurring issue, which has arisen before and will likely arise again absent this Court’s review,” the solicitor general continued. “The Court should thus take this opportunity to address the constitutionality of the Hegseth policy and reverse the decision below, whose reasoning cannot be squared with this Court’s precedents or deference to the military.”
The justices are expected to decide whether to take up the case when they return to work from their summer recess.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued that the Supreme Court should not intervene until the case is finished working its way through the lower courts.
“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,” Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said in a statement.
“There is no circuit split, no emergency, and no merit – only a policy that multiple courts have now found was driven by prejudice rather than military need,” Minter continued. “The Trump administration is needlessly attempting to ram through policies that will cause irreparable harm to servicemembers and their families.
“The Court should deny this request.”
