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The administration says legal challenges to the ban are "premature" because, it claims, trans service members haven't been harmed by it yet.
A lawsuit to block the reinstatement of the transgender military ban is "premature" and should be dismissed, according to the Trump administration, because trans service members have not yet suffered harm from the policy.
The Department of Justice made that argument in a brief filed in the case of Doe v. Trump, the first of four lawsuits filed to challenge the ban. The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders filed the suit in August on behalf of several trans people either serving in the military or planning to join, and sought a preliminary injunction to keep the policy from going into effect while the suit makes its way through the courts. The Justice Department said the motion for a preliminary injunction should be dismissed, and its motion to dismiss the case altogether should be granted.
The legal challenge to the ban is "premature several times over," the department said in the brief, filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Washington Blade reports.
"The president's memorandum states that no policy changes to the status quo will be effective until at least after January 2018," the brief reads. "The president further directed the secretary of defense to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the military and that no action be taken against such individuals until after a policy review is completed."
"Plaintiffs' current complaint and motion account for none of this," it continues. "The amended complaint does not even mention, let alone challenge, the interim guidance in effect today. Similarly, plaintiffs declined to bring the interim guidance to the court's attention in connection with their pending motion, even though the guidance plainly constitutes a significant development that negates their demand for emergency relief."
GLAD and NCLR attorneys denounced the Justice Department's argument. "The government's response reads like pure fiction," Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD's Transgender Rights Project, said in a press release. "It states a fantasy that the president's announcement of a ban on military service for transgender people has changed nothing. That's simply not true. Every day this reckless ban stays in place, our military strength is diminished and our country is less safe for it. We are optimistic the court will see through this smokescreen and halt the ban."
"The president's attack on transgender service members who have dedicated their lives to serving our country is unconscionable. Rather than even attempting to defend it, the DOJ is asking the court to turn a blind eye to the devastation the President has caused in the lives of real people and real families," added Shannon Minter, NCLR's legal director, in the release. "Because of the president's ban, smart, dedicated, and idealistic young people like our plaintiffs Regan Kibby and Dylan Kohere are barred from fulfilling their dreams of military service. And transgender people who are already serving have been told that their skills, training, and years of dedicated service are not valued. The ban has left them scrambling to make new plans for their futures, just as it has undermined our nation's security. This is the exact opposite of how military policy should be made."
Donald Trump announced plans to reinstate the ban in a July 26 tweet, reversing the lifting of the ban by the Obama administration in 2016. Trans people are blocked from enlisting, and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are working on plans for separation of trans troops currently serving. Three other lawsuits have been filed against the new ban.
