With the help of two major LGBT advocacy groups, five transgender members of the military are suing President Trump over his announcement in July regarding their ability to join and remain in the armed forces.
Late last month, President Trump took it upon himself to declare that the Department of Defense’s temporary stay on an Obama-era rule to integrate openly trans civilians into the military would be made permanent.
What’s more, Trump took the stay further, saying that no trans Americans would be permitted to serve in the military in any capacity, leaving the nearly 15,000 current members of the armed forces who are trans unsure about where their employment stood.
It was this second vital announcement that has gotten the Trump administration into trouble.
Now, a joint lawsuit by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) is focusing on the damage the announcement caused to trans military servicemembers.
“Execution of the President’s directive will result in an end to service by openly transgender service members and has already resulted in immediate, concrete injury to Plaintiffs by unsettling and destabilizing plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of continued service,” the suit states.
A separate lawsuit by the ACLU has also been lodged on the issue.
The lawsuit claims that implementing Trump’s all-out trans ban violated several portions of the constitution, including the Equal Protection component and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Trump’s announcement, an inappropriate overstep, was regarded almost universally as a bad move. Like many of his prior decisions as POTUS, this is yet another that private citizens have good grounds to oppose him legally.
