Trump administaration on military transgender ban
The administration of US President Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to hear a petition challenging the president’s policy, which bars most transgender individuals from military service. The policy was first announced by Trump in July 2107 via Twitter and was later officially released by Secretary of Defence James Mattis.
As per the policy, individuals who suffer from a condition known as gender dysphoria from serving with limited exceptions, media reports said.
It also specifies that individuals without the condition can serve, but only if they do so according to the sex they were assigned at birth.
The policy has so far been blocked from going into effect by the district courts across the country.
Petitions, asking the justices to take up the issue in three separate cases that were still in lower courts so it could be decided definitively this term, were filed by Solicitor General Noel Francisco on Friday.
Francisco argued that lower court rulings imposing nationwide injunctions were wrong and wanted immediate review.
He said that because of the injunctions, "the military has been forced to maintain that prior policy for nearly a year" despite a determination by Mattis and a panel of experts that the "prior policy, adopted by (Defence Secretary Ash Carter), posed too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality".
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice warned the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that it planned to ask for emergency relief to lift the nationwide injunction.
The filing comes after Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump got into a public dispute about the independence of the judiciary this week.
Roberts issued a statement on Wednesday, criticizing the president for calling one lower court judge who ruled against him an "Obama judge".
The president responded via Twitter, criticizing Roberts and accusing the American judiciary of undermining national security.
