Trump makes an offer to limit transgender troops to the Supreme Court

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The administration of President Donald Trump on Friday urged the US Supreme Court to review lower court decisions blocking a policy banning military service for some transgender people, refusing to allow anyone to go to court. wait for the decisions of the federal courts of appeal currently considering the issue.

In March, Trump announced his support for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' plan to restrict the military service of transgender people with a condition called gender dysphoria. The policy replaced the absolute ban on transgender service members that Trump had announced last year on Twitter, citing concern over military priorities and medical costs.

But federal court judges in Washington, DC and Washington, DC, refused to lift the injunctions they had issued against Trump's original ban to allow the new policy to be enforced.

The judges stated that the new policy was essentially the same as the initial prohibition, or that it was simply a plan to implement the original prohibition, which, in their judgment, would go to against the guarantee of the United States Constitution of equal protection.

The government's calls for these decisions have progressed. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals of the American Circuit, based in San Francisco, heard oral arguments in a file it deals with in October.

But in seeking to gain control of the high court before the courts of appeal ruled, which has shaped the government's litigation strategy, the government has said it wants to ensure that the Supreme Court can review the dispute. before the end of his term in June 2019.

The American Psychiatric Association defines gender dysphoria as a "clinically significant distress" due to a conflict between a person's gender identity and sex assigned at birth. All transgender people do not suffer from gender dysphoria, according to the association, which opposes the military ban.

Current and future members of the military service were sued in US courts after Trump announced his ban, overthrowing the policy of former Democratic President Barack Obama allowing transgender troops to openly serve and receive medical care for men and women in transition.

In the case asking the Supreme Court to re-examine the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said that Mattis and other military leaders had determined that Obama's policy "posed too great a risk for military efficiency and effectiveness." lethality ".

"It's just another attempt by Trump's reckless administration to push through a discriminatory policy," said Jennifer Levi, director of the group's transgender rights project. Anti-Discrimination GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, representing some of the complainants.