The ‘U.S. Court of Appeals’ hands the LGBTQ community a victory this week as it rejected another another attempted to life the Transgender Military Ban injunction by the Trump administration.

While the injunction simply reinforces the already in place block on the ‘Transgender Military Ban’ policy of the Trump administration, lawsuits against the ban are continuing to make their way through the court system. Everyone knows that it will all come down to the ‘U.S Supreme Court’ for review which is something that the majority of Americans are concerned over especially with the nomination of the next Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, who is known to be a strong opponent of the LGBT community.

US Court of Appeals 9th circuit court

On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the request to lift an injunction issued by Judge Marsha Pechman, who by the way is currently hearing ‘Karnoski v. Trump’, which is one of four lawsuits challenging the Pentagon’s Transgender Military Ban.

‘Karnoski v. Trump’ is being heard in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, in Seattle. The one thing so far that has protected transgender military personnel is the fact that all four district judges in all four lawsuits targeting the ban, have issued injunctions that keep the ban from going into effect while the cases are making their way through the court system. The case of ‘Kanrnoski v. Trump’ is scheduled to begin in April 2019.

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If the Justice Department seeks Supreme Court review before Justice Kennedy steps down for retirement, it will likely do so before the end of this week. An attorney representing Lambda Legal in ‘Karnoski v. Trump’ along with OutServe-SLDN, said in their opinion, Justice Kennedy is unlikely to make an anti-LGBT ruling prior to his retirement.

‘Lambda Legal’ senior attorney Peter Renn told the Washington Blade…“If the government does seek a stay, and the request is referred to the full Supreme Court, it is unlikely that a majority of the Supreme Court would allow the government to immediately enforce its discriminatory plan. Now if there is a vote on a stay by the end of this month, it is difficult to imagine that Justice Kennedy will want to cap off his tenure on the court by allowing the military to toss aside transgender people, and their sacrifices for our country, as if they were disposable.” Renn told the Washington Blade.

We will continue to follow these cases and bring you the latest as it becomes available.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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