WASHINGTON, D.C — (12-17-18) — The Trump Administration’ Justice Department is asking SCOTUS for an emergency ruling to allow the immediate implementation of the transgender military ban.
The DOJ wants a resolution to the matter one way or another but are urging the court to issue an emergency temporary ruling in their favor to inact the ban.
Prior to Jeff Sessions being fired as attorney general, he had the Justice Department last month urge the Supreme Court to bypass lower courts and immediately take up the the legal battle over transgender military service.
Now, three weeks later, the DOJ is back to ask SCOTUS to allow the trans military ban to take effect on an interim basis. One wonders what is their rush!
Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed three separate briefs last Thursday Dec.13, requesting that SCOTUS by pass their tradition and take up the trans military ban issue this term. Then another to allow the government to enforce its ban as the issue plays out in the legal system.
The DOJ has asked the Supreme Court to consider two alternate requests made by the pentagon January.
As NBC News reported, “the high court has agreed only about a dozen times in the past century to take a case so quickly and bypass the federal appeals courts. These exceptions have typically involved a national emergency.
The Trump administration’s transgender military ban was announced in a surprise tweet posted by President Donald Trump in July 2017, when he announced that he would reverse an Obama-era plan to allow trans individuals to serve openly.”
This caught Defense Secretary James Mattis off guard and was surprised at the president’s declaration via twitter.
While he courts immediately placed an injunction on Trump’s declaration from multiple courts nationwide, Matt came up with a modified anti-LGBTQ proposal that the president could live with. The modified policy would “Allow trans individuals to serve, but only if they did not seek gender transition and agreed to serve “in their biological sex.”
The Mattis policy was immediately slammed down by four federal courts who issued orders forbidding the government from enforcing the policy. U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle said that “discrimination against transgender people clearly is unrelated to their ability to perform and contribute to society.”
“It’s quite remarkable how badly this administration suddenly wants to start discriminating.” said Peter Renn, an attorney with LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal, one of the organizations fighting the administration’s trans military ban in court.
“The 9th Circuit denied a stay five months ago, and transgender troops have continued doing their duty, protecting our country and serving openly for two-and-a-half years now. Nothing has changed since then,” said Renn. “But not only does the Trump-Pence administration want to cut in line and forgo the normal process in which courts evaluate cases — asking the Supreme Court to weigh in before any appellate court has ruled — the administration also wants a green light so that they can begin kicking out transgender troops if their leap-frog attempt doesn’t succeed.
Renn concluded by saying … “There is no basis for this eleventh-hour tactic, much less the threatened ban to begin with,” Renn said, “and we look forward to making that case.”
We will continue to watch this case and bring you updates as they become available.
Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer
- AUSSIEBUM: Introducing NZLC Men’s Apparel Commercial - April 24, 2024
- In Control (2024) Beau Butler, Kyle Fletcher Headline All Star Cast - April 24, 2024
- LatinBoyz Models Danny & Dimitrios Debut on Digital - April 24, 2024
