The judge said animus drove the policy, then quoted Groucho Marx about it.
Big news just dropped just in time for Pride Month.
Pete Hegseth spent a year telling everyone he was making the military leaner and meaner by getting transgender people out of it. Monday a federal court told him the whole thing was probably illegal, and that he’d built it out of spite.
The D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that the policy is likely unconstitutional. Judge Robert Wilkins wrote the opinion and he didn’t soften it – he said there was direct evidence that animus, the legal word for wanting to harm a group of people, drove the policy. He even reached for Groucho Marx in the opinion, the bit about who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes. A federal judge quoting Groucho Marx to describe the Secretary of Defense’s reasoning is not a thing I expected to read this week.
“Likely” matters here, so I want to be straight about what this ruling actually is. It’s not the final word. The court kept a preliminary block in place while the case keeps going, and it only protects the specific service members who sued – not every transgender person in uniform. Those plaintiffs had put in a combined 130 years of service and earned more than 80 commendations between them, and the court basically said the government never explained how kicking these particular people out makes the country safer.
New recruits got nothing. The court left the door shut on anyone transgender trying to enlist, saying that’s a different legal question. So if you’re already serving and your name’s on the lawsuit, you’re safe for now. If you wanted to sign up, you’re still locked out.
The reasoning is the part that should stick. Courts almost never second-guess the Pentagon on who’s fit to serve – that’s about the most deferential area of law there is. To get to a ruling like this, the judges had to look at the official justification, the stuff about readiness and gender dysphoria, and decide it was a cover story. Wilkins used the word pretextual, which is the polite legal way of saying they made up a reason after the fact.
Both judges in the majority were appointed by Democrats. The dissent came from a Trump appointee who said the courts have no business deciding this at all. Nobody’s shocked by that split.
Hegseth’s entire response to a court finding his policy was built on animus was four words on social media.
“See you at SCOTUS.”
Which is probably right – the Supreme Court already let the ban take effect once while the lower courts argued about it, so he’s got reason to like his odds up there.
The pitch was always lethality and standards. A tougher force with the dead weight cleared out. The dead weight, it turns out, included people with decades in uniform and chests full of commendations, and a court just looked at the man’s own words and basically called the whole readiness story a lie.
#ratcclips
Sources
- The Hill: Appeals court rules Hegseth illegally banned active transgender troops, but can bar new recruits
- NPR: Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military, appeals court rules
- CBS News: Divided appeals court rules Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service is unconstitutional
- Court Shields Transgender Troops From Removal but Keeps Door Closed to New Recruits (Talbott v. United States, No. 25-5087)