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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to overtake federal appeal courts in a number of cases concerning the president's decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military.
Federal district courts have issued injunctions against the new policy, but no court of appeal has yet ruled on it. The Supreme Court does not normally intercede until at least one court of appeal has considered an issue and generally expects a disagreement between the courts of appeal before it is finalized. add a case to his role.
The Trump administration has repeatedly asked judges to hear appeals directly from district court decisions, most recently on a number of occasions concerning its attempt to close a program protecting some 700,000 undocumented immigrant youth from expulsion. Like the ban on transgender service in the military, this policy has been blocked by federal judges.
In both cases, Judge Solicitor General Noel Francisco Francisco told the judges that it was necessary to act promptly so that the Supreme Court could rule before the end of his current term in June.
In a brief filed on Friday, Mr. Francisco said, "This case meets this standard."
"This implies," he wrote, "an issue of paramount importance to the public: the power of the US military to determine who can serve in the country's armed forces."
Trial judges ruled that there was no evidence that the service of transgender people threatened cohesion or military readiness.
"The argument that the continued service of transgender people would have a negative impact on the military has absolutely no foundation," Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court in Washington wrote last year. . "In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the release and prohibition of such individuals that would produce such effects."
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is set to appeal its decision next month. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, heard the arguments in a separate appeal, but has not yet rendered its decision. The ninth circuit has been the subject of President Trump's scathing attacks in recent days.
The administration has also recently filed unusual petitions asking the Supreme Court to block trials in cases involving climate change and the addition of an issue regarding citizenship at the next census.
Critics have stated that the administration 's request to circumvent the ordinary appeal procedures in transgender cases was presumptuous.
"Today, the US Department of Justice has announced its intention to bypass established practice, asking the US Supreme Court to revise a decision of a district court preliminary even before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was given the opportunity to rule, "said Peter Renn, a lawyer for Lambda Legal, who represents the challengers in one of the cases that Mr. Francisco asked the Supreme Court of Canada to rule. ; examine.
"This very unusual step is extremely premature and inappropriate," Renn said. "Once again, the Trump administration is flouting established standards and procedures. There is no valid reason to overrule and ask the US Supreme Court to review the situation before the courts of appeal even decided on the preliminary issues before them. "
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