Judge Hopes to Rule Next Week on Trump Order Banning Transgender People from Military ServiceLink to Full ArticleMilitary.com - Associated Press | By Michael Kunzelman
Published March 12, 2025 at 6:15 pm
A federal judge said Wednesday that she hopes to rule next week on whether to block President Donald Trump's administration from banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.
At the end of a daylong hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said it is her "strong hope" that she will issue a decision next Tuesday or Wednesday. Reyes acknowledged that her ruling probably won't be the "last stop in this train's journey," given the near-certainty of an appeal.
Reyes spent most of Wednesday's hearing peppering a government attorney with questions about a new Defense Department policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service.
Roughly 2,000 transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.
The judge said the Defense Department has spent roughly $5.2 million annually over the past decade to provide medical care to treat gender dysphoria — a miniscule percentage of the military's multi-billion dollar budget. As a point of comparison, Reyes noted that the military spends around $42 million per year on medication treating erectile dysfunction.
"It's not even a rounding error, right?" she asked.------------------------------
