Trump got a win today via a federal appeals court in regards to the Pentagon’s ban on transgenders in the military:
TPM – A federal appeals court is siding with the Trump administration in a case about the Pentagon’s policy of restricting military service by transgender people.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that a lower-court judge was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing its preferred policy.
Military policy until a few years ago had barred service by transgender people. That changed under President Barack Obama, but President Donald Trump said he would reverse course, leading to lawsuits by transgender people.
But despite the win, nothing changes because other courts have injunctions still in place:
The unsigned ruling will not allow the Pentagon to put in place its desired policy, however, because three other judges have entered orders blocking the administration in similar cases.
Here’s more from a Buzzfeed reporter:
New: This morning the DC Circuit vacated an injunction that had blocked the Trump admin's ban on transgender military service — this doesn't change the status quo, since injunctions issued by other courts still stand, but it's still noteworthy https://t.co/7kjltmzzLe pic.twitter.com/DPfbjVStKJ
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019
This is the first win for the administration in litigation over the transgender military service policy — judges in DC, WA, and CA issued injunctions. The cases went up on appeal, but DOJ then petitioned SCOTUS before the circuits ruled, which was unusual: https://t.co/HCBp1aMmeO
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019
SCOTUS hasn't weighed in yet, and now in the meantime the DC Circuit has issued a ruling. It's a per curiam judgment, and not "published," which means it's not precedent for the circuit and no one judge on the panel is the named author, it's just on behalf of the court
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019
In today's judgment, the panel held the lower court judge was wrong to say that there was no "significant change" between the ban announced by Trump on Twitter in 2017 and the "Mattis Plan" approved this year — the govt took "substantial steps" to fix problems with the former pic.twitter.com/lzRIYGHaGk
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019
The court also said it was wrong to conclude the "Mattis Plan" was a blanket ban on service, saying the record indicated not all transgender people 1) have gender dysphoria and 2) transition — the ban's challengers had argued this just meant people had to suppress their identity pic.twitter.com/v9tKiHtXwe
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019
So to recap: The Trump administration got a favorable ruling today from the DC Circuit re: the transgender military service ban, but it doesn't change anything right now because there are injunctions still in place issued by other courts
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 4, 2019