US court upholds injunction against Trump policy banning transgender troops

The decision was split, allowing the Trump administration to continue barring transgender people from enlisting in the military.

A United States court of appeals has ruled that a policy under President Donald Trump to expel transgender troops from the military was a violation of the Constitution.

But Monday’s decision was a split one among the three-judge panel of the US appeals court for the District of Columbia.

One judge, Robert Wilkins, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, upheld a lower court ruling rejecting the Trump administration’s policy as it pertains to already enlisted service members.

A second judge – Judith Rogers, who was picked by former Democratic President Bill Clinton – agreed with his opinion, but only in part. She felt it should extend to those who seek to enlist, too.

And the third judge, Trump pick Justin Walker, issued a dissent questioning the court’s ability to second-guess US military policy.

Writing for the fractured majority, Wilkins wrote that Trump’s policy violates the “constitutional right to equal protection of the law”.

The case focused on one of the earliest actions Trump took during his second term in office. On January 27, 2025, a week after his second inauguration, Trump issued an executive order called “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness”.

In it, he denounced the US armed forces as having been infiltrated with “radical gender ideology”. He proceeded to describe transgender people as unfit for service for embracing a “false ‘gender identity'”.

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” Trump wrote.

The executive order became the basis for a 13-page Pentagon memorandum, issued in February 2025 under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

It declared that any service member who has “symptoms” of gender dysphoria, or who has used hormone therapy or surgery to affirm their gender, would be “disqualified from military service”.

In Monday’s ruling, Wilkins described the policy as blatantly discriminatory. The policy, he wrote, “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender”.

“To add insult, the President labeled transgender persons as dishonorable, undisciplined, arrogant, selfish liars,” Wilkins added, pointing to the executive order.

He pointed out that the transgender plaintiffs in the case had a combined 130 years of military service and had earned more than 80 commendations for