Another judge blocks the Pentagon from implementing Trump's transgender military ban

A federal judge in Washington state has blocked the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service, issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction just one day before the Pentagon was set to begin discharging transgender service members.

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U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle of the Western District of Washington ruled Thursday that the Trump administration’s January executive order banning transgender people from serving openly in the armed forces is likely unconstitutional.

"To be clear: the government’s implementation of the Military Ban and the Hegseth Policy, and any other attempt to identify and separate transgender service members for being transgender, is preliminarily enjoined, nationally, pending a trial on the merits.” His decision immediately halts the ban nationwide, covering the plaintiffs in the case and all similarly situated service members, including those stationed overseas.

Related: Federal judge blocks Trump's transgender military ban

“The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” Settle wrote in the ruling. “The government’s unrelenting reliance on deference to military judgment is unjustified in the absence of any evidence supporting ‘the military’s’ new judgment reflected in the Military Ban—in its equally considered and unquestionable judgment, that very same military had only the week before permitted active-duty plaintiffs (and some thousands of others) to serve openly. Any evidence that such service over the past four years harmed any of the military’s inarguably critical aims would be front and center. But there is none.”

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The decision in Commander Emily Shilling et al. v. United States et al. is the second federal injunction issued against the 2025 ban. Two weeks ago, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction in Talbott v. United States, also finding the administration’s policy unconstitutional. Reyes wrote that the ban failed intermediate scrutiny and appeared motivated by anti-trans animus. That ruling is now being appealed.

Thursday’s injunction comes just in time: the Pentagon had announced that enforcement would begin Friday through forced separations of openly transgender service members. That action is now blocked.

Related: Fireworks in D.C. courtroom as judge hears DOJ request to undo block on trans military ban

Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation filed the Shilling lawsuit in February on behalf of seven active-duty transgender service members, a transgender person seeking to enlist, and the Seattle-based Gender Justice League.

“This decision affirms what we have long maintained: that banning Americans from military service solely because they are transgender is not only unconstitutional but undermines our national security and military readiness,” said Kell Olson, counsel at Lambda Legal.

Sarah Warbelow, legal vice president of the Human Rights CampaignFoundation, called the ruling “a win for our nation’s brave servicemembers and affirms their sacrifices and commitment to our Armed Forces are to be venerated—not callously disregarded by slapshot policies.”