A federal court in Washington has blocked President Trump from reversing a policy put in place by President Obama that would allow transgender troops to serve openly.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued her ruling Monday.
NEW: A federal judge has blocked enforcement of part of Trump's directive re: transgender military service https://t.co/obHcvt0jit pic.twitter.com/djMzltOzZk
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) October 30, 2017
In her memorandum opinion, the judge appears to side with the plaintiffs suing over the transgender rule. The president’s directives do not hold water, she suggests, because "they are not genuinely based on legitimate concerns regarding military effectiveness or budget constraints, but are instead driven by a desire to express disapproval of transgender people generally."
These plaintiffs, some of whom have served in the military for years, fear that the president’s directive will have “devastating impacts on their careers and their families,” Kollar-Kotelly adds.
She expects the plaintiffs to win their cases.
However, the judge ruled that while the plaintiffs have "standing" to challenge the president's Accession and Retention Directives, none of them have provided significant justification for their challenge to the Sex Reassignment Surgery Directive, considering not all plaintiffs are affected by it.
Trump made his announcement via Twitter in August that the policy on transgenders in the military would revert back to what it was in June 2016.
The Family Research Council is outraged that another federal judge is acting more like an activist.
"This is where judicial activism is leading us," FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement Monday. "The courts have moved beyond legislating on the invented rights of abortion and same-sex marriage to clearly usurping the constitutional authority of the executive branch. The president has the primary task of protecting Americans but we see the courts weakening his immigration policies designed to protect America from threats and now telling the commander-in-chief how to run the military."
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