OutServe-SLDN and Lambda Legal have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition from the U.S. Department of Justice asking that the court stay three preliminary federal district court rulings without going through the normal appeals process. The cases have kept the Trump administration from implementing its transgender military ban.
Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed the lawsuit Karnoski v. Trump in August 2017, on behalf of nine individual plaintiffs and three organizational plaintiffs — the Human Rights Campaign, Seattle-based Gender Justice League and the American Military Partner Association. The state of Washington joined the lawsuit later.
The two other cases the Trump Administration asked the Supreme Court to review are Stockman v. Trump and Doe v. Trump, lawsuits also challenging the ban, filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).
“There is no justification for this tactic, other than the president’s callous need to harm transgender service members and recruits as quickly as he can,” said Peter Perkowski, OutServe-SLDN Legal & Policy Director. “The Trump-Pence administration’s attempt to jump the line is not warranted: transgender people are currently serving openly and have been for more than two years. The Service Chiefs themselves have told Congress that there have been no problems with their open and authentic service. What’s the rush? The process should play out in the normal course. We’re confident that the Supreme Court will see through this request as premature.”
“The sudden urgency of the Trump administration’s effort to discriminate against transgender service members is bordering on the ridiculous,” Lambda Legal Counsel Peter Renn said.
“Not only has it sought to short-circuit established practice by seeking Supreme Court review before the Courts of Appeal have ruled, but now it wants to be able to implement the ban to kick out transgender service members even if the Court denies that petition.
— David Taffet
from Lambda Legal and OutServe SLDN press releases
