On March 18, 2025, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Trump’s executive order banning transgender individuals from military service.
The executive order, titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” directed the Secretary of Defense to update the medical standards for military service to reflect that transgender individuals “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” The day after President Trump signed the order, GLAD Law, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and other civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order on behalf of six active-duty trans service members and two prospective trans service members. The lawsuit challenges the ban on the basis that violates the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection because it discriminates based without lawful justification.
In her opinion, Judge Reyes argued that the ban violated the constitutional rights of transgender individuals serving in the military, writing, “The President has the power—indeed the obligation—to ensure military readiness. At times, however, leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving." Recognizing those limits, however, the Court went on: “The President and Defendants could have crafted a policy that balances the Nation’s need for a prepared military and Americans’ right to equal protection. They still can. The Military Ban, however, is not that policy. The Court therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day.”
As Just Reyes acknowledged: “In the self-evident truth that “all people are created equal,” all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less.” Correia & Puth applauds the efforts of NCLR, GLAD Law, and the other civil rights lawyers standing up to protect the rights of our transgender members of the military.
