Trump admin asks Supreme Court to take up trans military ban for the second timehttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/08/admin-asks-supreme-court-to-take-up-trans-military-ban-for-the-second-time/ 🔗Molly Sprayregen (31 Aug 2026)
The Trump administration's trans military ban has taken several hits in court, and officials are now taking their fight to kick trans people out to the Supreme Court.
The administration submitted a petition on August 28, asking the justices to determine whether banning trans people from the military is constitutional after a federal court ruled against the ban in June.
In the petition, Solicitor General D. John Sauer claimed the appeals court's earlier decision was "gravely erroneous" and argued the Supreme Court should take the case because it "is a recurring issue, which has arisen before and will likely arise again absent this Court's review."
The June decision was made by a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The panel ruled 2-1 in Talbott v. USA that the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military is a policy designed to target a group of people based on their gender identity, upholding a March 2025 ruling from out federal Judge Ana Reyes that the policy likely violates the Constitution.
Judge Robert Wilkins, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote for the court that the ban "appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender."
The ruling does not mean that trans people can join the military again, since the Supreme Court already ruled last year that the ban could be implemented while the lawsuits against it work their way through the legal system. The court only ruled that a group of transgender military service members could not be kicked out as their case is heard.
