A federal judge on Friday denied yet
another attempt by the Trump administration to implement its plan to
bar transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military.
The government had asked Judge Marsha
Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of
Washington to stay her preliminary injunction granted in December
2017 as the administration pursues an appeal.
In denying the government's request,
Pechman cited testimony offered by military leaders in April before a
Senate committee.
Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley
told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there have been
“precisely zero” reports of problems with unit cohesion,
discipline and morale related to openly transgender troops, while
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson remarked “steady
as she goes.”
“As this testimony makes clear,
Defendants' hypothetical and conclusory claims are unsupported by
evidence and do not establish a likelihood of irreparable harm,”
Pechman wrote. “The status quo shall remain 'steady as she goes,'
and the preliminary injunction shall remain in full force and effect
nationwide.”
Pechman first halted implementation of
the ban in a December ruling, saying that the policy “is likely
unconstitutional.”
The case is expected to go to trial in
April 2019.
Plaintiffs in the case, nine
transgender people who are serving or wish to serve in the military,
three groups and the state of Washington, are represented by Lambda
Legal and OutServe-SLDN.
“Yet again, the Trump Administration
has tried to implement and expedite discrimination, and yet again,
the court has said no,” Lambda Legal senior attorney Peter Renn
said in a statement. “You would think the administration would get
tired of all the losing, and more importantly, would read the writing
on the wall and abandon this discriminatory and harmful scheme to
prevent brave and qualified transgender people from serving their
country.”