A federal judge on Monday halted President Trump’s move to oust transgender service members from the military, saying those troops qualify as a protected class and rejecting Mr. Trump’s claim that his national security decisions shouldn’t be questioned.
The ruling by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly breaks new legal ground for courts in Washington, D.C., finding that transgender status is a “quasi-suspect” legal category deserving of heightened protections by federal courts. She said Mr. Trump’s policy creates an “inherent inequality” that likely violates the Constitution.
And she said the president’s own conclusions about the value and costs of transgender troops were wrong.
“All of the reasons proffered by the president for excluding transgender individuals from the military in this case were not merely unsupported, but were actually contradicted by the studies, conclusions and judgment of the military itself,” she wrote.
[contentcards url=”http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/30/judge-halts-trumps-transgender-troop-ban/” target=”_blank”]