Federal circuit courts uphold transgender military ban and other Trump administration efforts
Donald Trump’s efforts to remove transgender personnel from the military, as well as firing of federal workers, continue to be held up by the courts. The transgender ban was due to come into effect today. Thousands of probationary employees are in the process of being reinstated pending the administration’s fight to overturn the decision to hire them back.
From The Guardian:
A judge in Washington DC rejected the government’s attempt to lift a court order which prevented its transgender military ban, which had been due to come into effect on Friday, from taking place.
The US district judge Ana Reyes also criticized the Trump administration’s proposed implementation plan, Advocate reported, noting that it required all 1.3 million military personnel to self-report annually whether they had experienced gender dysphoria. Reyes said the proposal amounted to “rummaging through private medical records” as she kept the court order in place.
The ninth US circuit court of appeals, meanwhile, refused to pause a judge’s earlier ruling which required the Trump administration to reinstate more than 17,000 probationary employees at six agencies who lost their jobs as part of Trump’s purge of the federal workforce.
The decision applies to workers at the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior and the treasury department.
The mass firings of probationary workers — employees who typically have less than one year, and sometimes less than two years, of service in their current roles — was the first step in broader efforts by Trump and his senior adviser and tech mogul Elon Musk to drastically shrink the federal workforce and slash government spending.
A judge had ruled on 13 March that the office of personnel management, which is closely tied to the White House, improperly ordered the six agencies to fire the workers even though it has no power to do so. The Trump administration responded by saying it was working to reinstate the employees, but also appealed the ruling.
Amid a series of rulings, a federal appeals court also said it would not lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting immigrants to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law.
Additional Reading:
Gabbatt, A. (2025, March 27). Judges rule against Trump in several cases including trans military ban. The Guardian. Link.
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