SCOTUS Lifts Two Injunctions Against Trump's Trans Troops Ban--but the Policy Remains Blocked

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/supreme-court-trump-transgender-troops-ban.html

By Mark Joseph Stern
Jan 22, 201911:04 AM

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Now the Supreme Court has lifted two more injunctions, both out of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (It did not explain its decision but split along ideological lines, with all four liberal justices dissenting.) Yet a fourth nationwide injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis in Maryland, remains in place—for now. The Trump administration may argue that this ruling only applies to the initial ban, not the Mattis policy. But Garbis’ injunction still seems to forbid the Pentagon from discriminating against transgender troops by blocking all “policies and directives” encompassed in Trump’s initial memo. Since the Mattis policy merely implemented those “policies and directives,” the injunction should apply to them, as well.

Given SCOTUS’s actions on Tuesday, it seems inevitable that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will take a cue from the justices and lift Garbis’ injunction soon, too. For now, however, it remains in effect, blocking the Trump administration from discriminating against trans troops.

Despite that temporary silver lining, there’s no sugarcoating Tuesday’s orders. A majority of the Supreme Court has indicated that it is willing to defer to Trump’s snap decision and allow the Pentagon to once again prohibit open transgender service. The court might have gone the other way if Justice Anthony Kennedy, who famously safeguarded the “dignity” of sexual minorities, remained on the bench. But his replacement, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has evinced no interest in defending the dignity of LGBTQ people. Once the appeals court, or Supreme Court, lifts the last remaining injunction, the Trump administration’s experiment may begin in earnest, and transgender people who only want to serve their country will once again be shut out on the basis of their identity.