Supremos deliver blow to transgender patriots — but will it be permanent?
Breaking at the US Supreme Court:
Breaking: Supreme Court allows President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban to go into effect.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 22, 2019
Just now on @msnbc – Supreme Court allows trump admin to begin enforcing transgender military ban while case proceeds. Don’t know yet if Pentagon will begin enforcing it. Case won’t be considered by S.C. until next year.
— Emily Salazar (@LuvvvMusic) January 22, 2019
Washington Post reports on teh 5-4 decision:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Trump’s broad restrictions on transgender people serving in the military to go into effect while the legal battle continues in lower courts.
The justices lifted nationwide injunctions that had kept the administration’s policy from being implemented.
It reversed an Obama-administration rule that would have opened the military to transgender men and women, and instead barred those who identify with a gender different from the one assigned at birth and who are seeking to transition.
The court’s five conservatives–Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh–allowed the restrictions to go into effect while the court decides to whether to consider the merits of the case.
The liberal justices–Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan–would have kept the injunctions in place.
In short, Trump gets another “undo Obama and own the liberals’ moment, even though the decision about whether or not to discriminate against transgender soldiers will be left entirely to the Pentagon until the full case is heard next year. Thank you, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
You should have no doubt that the effort to purge transgender members of the military is a move by Trump to specifically deliver a “win” to the Rapture-cult, allegedly “Christian” evangelical faction of his base (as New York magazine explained last October).
Go read this if you have any doubt that the targets of a bigoted crusade to “punish” patriotic individuals with both the courage to deal with gender dysphoria and the dedication to protect and defend our country.
DEVELOPING…
