Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Supreme Court grants stay, allowing transgender military ban to proceed, (May 7, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

In March, a federal district court had entered an injunction halting the ban.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in an order list, issued an order staying a federal court’s preliminary injunction against a transgender military ban, allowing the ban to move forward for now. It stayed the preliminary injunction issued by the lower court pending disposition of an appeal before the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, “if such a writ is timely sought.” “Should certiorari be denied,” it adds, “this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.” Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would have denied the application, according to the order.

The ban. In 2021, President Biden issued an executive order instructing the Department of Defense to allow transgender individuals to serve openly in the military. However, executive orders issued by President Trump upon taking office in January 2025 effectively banned transgender individuals from all branches of the military. Resolving to “remove all traces of gender ideology,” the Department of Defense, under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, paused all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria and all gender-affirming medical care. In an official post, the Defense Department further stated that, “Transgender troops are disqualified from service without an exemption.”

The suit. A group of seven transgender servicemembers who have served honorably, along with an accession candidate for the U.S. Marine Corps who feared he would be ineligible to enlist based on his age if he waits for a subsequent administration to change military policy, and a human rights organization whose members include openly transgender servicemembers, filed suit challenging the ban. Twenty-one states also joined as amici.

The Washington federal district court determined that absent an injunction, all transgender servicemembers were likely to suffer irreparable harm of losing the career they have chosen, while otherwise qualified accession candidates would lose the opportunity to serve. Further, the court had concluded that because the military has operated smoothly under the previous administration’s policy, the claimed hardship it faced in the meantime would pale in comparison to the hardships imposed on transgender servicemembers.

Ninth Circuit’s denial. Although the government immediately appealed, the Ninth Circuit denied its request for a stay, and the government defendants sought intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to the Court’s order to stay the preliminary injunction.

The docket is No. 24A1030.

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