The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow President Trump to enforce his ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military.
The emergency application asks the justices to lift a Seattle-based federal judge’s nationwide injunction blocking the policy.
“The district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the Department’s professional military judgments are owed,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application.
At minimum, Sauer told the high court it should limit the judge’s nationwide order so it only blocks enforcement of the policy against the eight transgender service members suing.
Justice Elena Kagan, who received the request because she handles emergency requests arising from Washington state by default, ordered the service members’ legal team respond in writing by May 1.
Trump’s January policy declared that transgender service members can’t meet the “rigorous standards” needed to serve. Soon after, the Department of Defense directed the military to remove service members with gender dysphoria and to pause integration of new transgender recruits.
Sauer contended the new policy is “materially indistinguishable” from the one Trump ordered during his first term, which the Supreme Court enabled him to enforce.
That policy banned transgender service members but made an exception for some who had already started to transition, in line with rules that were put in place during former President Obama’s administration.
The new policy makes no such exception, deeming any service members who have a “current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria” not fit for military service.
“In the 2025 policy, as in the [Former Defense Secretary James] Mattis policy before it, the Department rationally determined that service by individuals with gender dysphoria would undermine military effectiveness and lethality—consistent with similar, longstanding determinations for a wide range of other medical conditions (such as asthma and hypertension),” Sauer wrote.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit last week declined to stop Trump’s new ban from going into effect while the government appeals.
It is the only nationwide block in effect, as of now.
In a joint statement, the advocacy groups representing the service members said they stand ready to “zealously represent” their clients “as we have at every juncture.”
“Transgender service members have been openly serving our country with honor and distinction for almost a decade and have met and are meeting every neutral service-based standard,” said Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign in a joint statement. “The U.S. Supreme Court should reject the invitation to stay the district court’s injunction so that they can impose their discriminatory ban while the litigation proceeds.”
In another lawsuit challenging the ban, a federal judge barred any policy effectuating Trump’s directive from taking effect. But a temporary pause on that order is in place while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit weighs whether to suspend that decision as the administration appeals.
The Trump administration’s alternative ask that the Supreme Court limit the reach of the Seattle judge’s order comes as the justices weigh whether several other judges were proper in blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order nationwide.
Oral arguments in that case are set for May 15.
Updated at 11:58 a.m. EDT
