In our last LGBT Law Notes issue of 2018, Arthur S. Leonard discussed recent developments of the Trump administration's ban on transgender military in lower courts.
"Just one week after the Solicitor General’s Petitions in three of the transgender military cases were docketed in the Supreme Court, new decisions were issued on November 30 in two cases, Stone v. Trump and Doe 2 v. Trump. Both went against the government", he wrote.
"In Doe 2 v. Mattis, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202946 (D.D.C.), District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who was the first to issue a preliminary injunction against the ban announced in the August 2017 memorandum on October 30, 2017, denied the government’s motion to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal."
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the Trump administration and overturned the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barring the Trump administration from banning transgender service members.
"We reverse the District Court’s denial of the government’s motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction and vacate the preliminary injunction without prejudice."
As we mentioned in our previous Law Notes articles, there are three other orders issued against this discriminatory policy that remain in effect. Those orders will allow transgender military troops to continue serving in the U.S. armed forces.