Federal Judge Blocks Trump from Banning Transgender Troops

Federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington has blocked President Donald Trump’s proposed ban on transgender troops in the military, the Associated Press reports.

While the Trump administration may appeal it, the U.S. District Judge’s ruling makes it impossible to enforce the exclusion of transgender people from the military. It was the Obama administration that signed the policy to allow people to serve in the military regardless of gender identity, a policy that is set to take effect at the beginning of 2018. Trump’s failure to reverse that policy means that it is back on track.

Donald Trump had sent out a memo to the Pentagon back in August to keep up the transgender ban indefinitely. But the AP reports that Kollar-Kotelly “ruled that transgender service members who had sued over Trump’s policy were likely to win their lawsuit. She directed a return to the situation that existed before Trump announced his new policy this summer.” This puts an end to Trump’s plan, for now.

Transgender individuals will be able to register for military service starting Jan. 1, 2018, barring another attempt by the Trump administration to stop them.