WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue.
The high court split 5-4 on Tuesday in issuing orders allowing the plan to take effect for now, with the court’s five conservatives greenlighting it and its four liberal members saying they wouldn’t have.
Some questions and answers about what the high court did:
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Q: What’s the impact on transgender men and women currently serving in the military?
A: That depends on the individual’s circumstances. In short, though, the justices cleared the way for the Trump administration to require that transgender troops serve as members of their biological gender unless they began a gender transition under less restrictive Obama administration rules.
Until a few years ago service members could be discharged from the military for being transgender. That changed in 2016 when the Obama administration began allowing transgender men and women already serving in the military to undergo gender transition if they were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, distress associated with their biological gender.
The military has said more than 900 men and women have received that diagnosis.
