Federal Judge Rules Hold on Trump Transgender Troop Ban to Continue

By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of the Western District of Washington states that Transgender People are a “Protected Class” and that the U.S. Military are blocked from enacting the Donald J. Trump ban on Transgender people.

“Transgender people have long been forced to live in silence, or to come out and face the threat of overwhelming discrimination,” wrong Judge Pechman.

Last Friday Judge Pechman blocked the federal government from implementing President Trump’s ban on transgender members of the military, finding that the discriminatory ban had to be subject to a careful court review before implementation due to the track record of discrimination against transgender individuals.

Judge Marsha Pechman’s official ruling states that transgender people were a protected class and that the injunctions against the implementation of the ban that had been issued back in Dec. 2017, should remain in place.

The judge further stipulated that…”There is a longg and well-recognized track record of discrimination and systemic oppression against transgender people, that discrimination against transgender people was clearly “unrelated to their ability to perform and contribute to society,” that transgender people have immutable characteristics and that they lacked relative political power. Transgender people have long been forced to live in silence, or to come out and face the threat of overwhelming discrimination,” wrote Judge Pechman.

“The Court also rules that, because transgender people have long been subjected to systemic oppression and forced to live in silence, they are a protected class. Therefore, any attempt to exclude them from military service will be looked at with the highest level of care, and will be subject to the Court’s ‘strict scrutiny.’ This means that before Defendants can implement the Ban, they must show that it was sincerely motivated by compelling interests, rather than by prejudice or stereotype, and that it is narrowly tailored to achieve those interests. The government had “failed to identify even one General or military expert he consulted, despite having been ordered to do so repeatedly.” wrote Judge Pechman.

Former top official at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Sharon McGowan, now works as director of strategy for Lambda Legal wrote that Judge Pechman “cut through the nonsense,” recognizing that the the new plan released by Secretary Mattis was just a dressed-up version of Trump’s original ban.”.

Review the Official Ruling by Judge Pechman