Federal judges say Trump’s anti-trans orders are rooted in bias, not law

[Jessica_Rose]

'Horrible discrimination': Federal judges say Trump's anti-trans orders are rooted in bias, not law

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/horrible-discrimination-federal-judges-say-trump-s-anti-trans-orders-are-rooted-in-bias-not-law/ar-AA1zwJEV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=de20416ac3174284ac3dad3b030ca42c&ei=4

Story by Orion Rummler (21 Feb 2025)

As lawsuits against the administration unfold, judges have dismissed and questioned the legal arguments supporting these orders while pointing to the larger effect of the Trump administration's actions: the attempted erasure of trans people as a whole.

"You can't tell me that transgender people are not being discriminated against today," U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes... said in court Wednesday... References to transgender people are being wiped off government websites, she said, including the National Park Service's web page honoring the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City.

"... We are literally erasing their contributions to modern society. How is it possible to view that as anything other than horrible discrimination?" she said.

"When you look at all these as a whole, as puzzle pieces of a whole puzzle ... it screams animus," she said.

... In legal terms, animus is a motivation that can only be explained as a bare desire to do harm against a certain group. If Reyes finds that this policy was based on animus, she will likely strike it down — and she's not the only judge pointing out this connection.

... U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson... granted a temporary stop on the government's enforcement of federal funding cuts against hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth.

Hurson said that language used by President Trump "seems to deny that this population exists, or even has the right to exist." The judge added that he struggles to understand how that can't be animus.

"The Court cannot fathom discrimination more direct than the plain pronouncement of a policy resting on the premise that the group to which the policy is directed does not exist," Hurson wrote.