TACOMA, Wash. — A U.S. judge in Tacoma has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military, the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks.
The order Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.
In his 65-page ruling, Settle — an appointee of former President George W. Bush and a former captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps — said the administration offered no explanation as to why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly over the past four years with no evidence of problems, should suddenly be banned.
“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” Settle wrote. “The government’s unrelenting reliance on deference to military judgment is unjustified in the absence of any evidence supporting ‘the military’s’ new judgment reflected in the Military Ban.”
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