A Federal Appeals court has partially blocked President Trump’s executive order banning trans-identified individuals from serving in the military. In 2025 towards the beginning of his second term, President Trump signed an executive order to block new recruits with gender dysphoria from serving in the military. The order stated, “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” adding that “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”

Following the order, the Defense Department announced a new policy, referred to as the Hegseth Policy, stating it would be reviewing active trans-identifying military members, who would “be processed for separation from military service.” Several of those currently-serving trans-identified service members and prospective service members sued against the new policy, asserting that, “the Hegseth Policy is not based on any legitimate governmental purpose, instead ‘reflect[ing] animosity toward transgender people because of their transgender status.’”

In a 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, the majority opinion ruled in favor of the service members. Writing the majority opinion, Judge Robert Wilkins stated the policy “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender.” Judge Justin Walker was the lone dissent and wrote in his dissent, “Like today’s majority, I cherish those rights, and so I understand the impulse behind the majority’s unprecedented intervention into military affairs. But because the plaintiffs are service members not civilians, and because we are judges not generals, I respectfully dissent.” He added, “We have neither the expertise nor the authority to decide whether the military can exclude the plaintiffs from its ranks. The Constitution assigns that authority to Congress and the Commander in Chief.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has vowed to fight the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.

The decision only applies to those service members named within the suit and does not stop the Pentagon from blocking transgender recruits. “For those servicemembers facing expulsion, it is not clear how easily they can be reinstated and made whole. But even if they can be reinstated after being separated, it appears to us to be a much greater hardship to end a military career than to delay the start of one,” wrote Wilkins.

LGBTQ+ advocates celebrated the ruling. “This decisive ruling confirms that the Trump Administration has no legitimate basis to discharge transgender servicemembers who have met every demanding standard and proven, time and again, their fitness and dedication to serve,” wrote Jenifer Levi,  GLAD Law Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights. “Service members were preparing to be hauled before review boards and discharged — despite years of honorable service,” said National Center for LGBTQ Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter. “The court today affirmed the District Court’s careful findings that this administration’s ban on transgender military service has no legitimate basis.”