The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration over the controversy over the “ban on transgender people (transgender people) from serving in the military” pushed by the Donald Trump administration.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the 6th that the Trump administration could immediately implement a policy that effectively excludes transgender people from military service, the Associated Press and CNN reported.
Three liberal Supreme Court justices opposed it, but it was not enough in the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has six conservative justices.
CNN evaluated the decision as “a major victory for President Trump in trying to resolve the delay in the lower court in the second term of power.”
President Trump issued a similar executive order during his first term in office, and it could be enforced by a Supreme Court ruling after being opposed.
The policy was later abolished when the Democratic Party’s Joe Biden administration took office, but President Trump ordered it to be re-implemented by signing an executive order on January 27, shortly after taking office in his second term in office.
As a follow-up to the executive order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the suspension of all medical procedures related to transgender recruitment and transformation on February 7.
In addition, unlike in the first term of power, even transgender soldiers who are already serving are virtually prohibited from serving.
Twenty people, including active-duty soldiers, filed a series of lawsuits asking for the suspension of President Trump’s executive order, and three federal court judges stopped the enforcement of the executive order.
Spartan Pride, a transgender military advocacy group, estimates that there are currently 15,000 to 25,000 transgender soldiers serving in the U.S. military, just over 1% of the total U.S. military.
Earlier this year, the Department of Defense spent about $15 million on surgical and non-surgical treatment of 1,892 transgender soldiers from 2016 to 2021, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
