The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a lower court’s ruling blocking President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.

“Although today’s decision is not a final determination on the merits, we must recognize that the Mattis Plan plausibly relies upon the ‘considered professional judgment’ of ‘appropriate military officials’ … and appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military consistent with established military mental health, physical health, and sex-based standards,” wrote the three-judge panel.  “In light of the substantial constitutional arguments and the apparent showing that the policy accommodates at least some of plaintiffs’ interests, we think that the public interest weighs in favor of dissolving the injunction.”

The Hill has more:

Four lawsuits were filed against the ban, and lower courts in all four cases had blocked the policy from taking effect as the suits work their way through the legal system.

In March, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis released an implementation plan for Trump’s policy that would allow transgender people to serve if they do so in their biological sex.

The Trump administration then asked courts to dissolve their injunctions, arguing the Mattis plan is not a blanket ban on transgender people.

The court agreed on this point.  “Although the Mattis Plan continues to bar many transgender persons from joining or serving in the military, the record indicates that the plan allows some transgender persons barred under the military’s standards prior to the [open service policy] to join and serve in the military.”

Though the policy still cannot take effect because of other nationwide injunctions, the ruling is yet another victory for President Trump…  one that hopefully restore common sense back to the American military.

Image credit: Ted Eytan on Flickr

Hat Tip: The Hill

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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