The Trump administration is defending its transgender military policy by arguing it targets a mental health diagnosis, not an identity, in its latest court filing, which seeks to dissolve a judge’s order halting enforcement of the policy.
In a motion filed Friday, the Justice Department urged a federal judge to lift an injunction that blocked the Department of Defense from implementing President Donald Trump’s January order barring individuals with gender dysphoria from enlisting or continuing to serve.
“The DoD Policy presumptively barring individuals from serving in the military turns on gender dysphoria — a medical condition — and does not discriminate against trans-identifying persons as a class,” DOJ attorneys said.
The Trump administration’s argument essentially likened its transgender policy to long-standing bans on recruits with conditions such as epilepsy, severe depression, or insulin-dependent diabetes — disqualifications rooted in concerns over readiness and deployability, not identity. However, the filing did not reference any other specific medical conditions.
The motion pushes back on U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes’s interpretation that the Pentagon is enacting a blanket ban. Reyes, appointed by former President Joe Biden, issued the injunction Tuesday and sided with eight plaintiffs who argued the policy violates their constitutional rights. Six of them are current service members.
The administration said the new clarifying guidance issued by the Pentagon on Friday proved that Reyes misunderstood the scope of the policy. That guidance, which remains blocked under the injunction, says the disqualifying criteria apply only to individuals meeting the clinical threshold for gender dysphoria, a recognized mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual.
“This confirmation underscores that the DoD Policy is concerned with military readiness, deployability, and costs associated with a medical condition,” DOJ attorneys wrote, citing long-standing precedent for excluding from service individuals with serious mental health conditions.
The Trump administration is now seeking either to lift the injunction, keep it on hold while the motion is resolved, or pause it pending appeal. It argued that the judge’s order disrupts military policy and injects confusion into enlistment standards.
Trump’s Jan. 27 order, titled Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness, asserts that individuals with gender dysphoria pose a risk to combat effectiveness and unit cohesion.
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order says.
Reyes, for her part, has been noticeably sympathetic to the plaintiffs in the case. She highlighted that some of them gained awards for their service.
“Plaintiffs, they acknowledge, have ‘made America safer,’” Reyes said in her March 18 memorandum. “So why discharge them and other decorated soldiers? Crickets from Defendants on this key question.”
JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S ORDER BARRING TRANSGENDER TROOPS FROM SERVING IN MILITARY
The case is one of several legal challenges to the new military policy. Plaintiffs have argued the distinction based on a medical diagnosis is a veiled attempt to bar transgender people, most of whom must receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, from accessing gender-related care.
Reyes stayed her injunction until Friday to allow time for appeal.
