A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday blocked enforcement\u00a0of President Trump\u2019s order to bar transgender troops from serving openly in the military, the second judge to halt the policy from taking effect nationwide.<\/p>\n
In a 65-page ruling, Judge Benjamin Hale Settle of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington said the Trump administration had offered no evidence to support removing transgender service members, who served without issue under the Biden administration, from the military.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,\u201d Settle, an appointee of former President George W. Bush and a retired\u00a0captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General\u2019s Corps, wrote in his decision. \u201cThe government\u2019s unrelenting reliance on deference to military judgment is unjustified in the absence of any evidence supporting \u2018the military\u2019s\u2019 new judgment reflected in the Military Ban\u2014in its equally considered and unquestionable judgment, that very same military had only the week before permitted active-duty plaintiffs (and some thousands of others) to serve openly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAny evidence that such service over the past four years harmed any of the military\u2019s inarguably critical aims would be front and center.\u201d Settle wrote. \u201cBut there is none.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., similarly blocked implementation<\/a> of Trump\u2019s order last week, ruling the policy is \u201csoaked in animus.\u201d The Pentagon is appealing that decision<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Monday, a third federal judge in New Jersey temporarily blocked<\/a> the military from separating two transgender Air Force members in a more limited ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n