Federal court blocks War Department from booting trans troops, allows ban on new recruits

The D.C. Circuit Court on Monday issued a ruling barring the Pentagon from pursuing the removal of transgender troops currently serving in the military, while allowing the War Department to enforce a ban on new recruits.

The decision will have effect while the case proceeds through the court system. Under the second Trump administration, the Pete Hegseth-led War Department has attempted to remove "woke" elements from the military, including through a stricter policy on transgender soldiers.

The D.C. court wrote that the administration had failed to show that a temporary injunction against removing transgender personnel would harm national security.

However, the calculus is different for those Plaintiff-Appellees who seek to join the military. While Plaintiff-Appellees who seek admission to the military have been deprived of constitutional freedoms, the harms and equities of their situations are not identical to those of persons already serving," the judges wrote.

"Plaintiff-Appellees seeking admission to the military can still obtain full relief later, following a final adjudication on the merits. For those servicemembers facing expulsion, it is not clear how easily they can be reinstated and made whole," they wrote. "But even if they can be reinstated after being separated, it appears to us to be a much greater hardship to end a military career than to delay the start of one."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.