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Transgender Military Ban - Court Holds Transgender a Protected Class

By Hubert Plummer posted 04-16-2018 03:55 PM

  

For the first time a federal Judge has held that transgendered people are a protected class entitled to the same protections from discrimination as other classes such as religion, sex and race.

In July of 2017, President Trump announced a ban on transgendered serving in the military.  The State of Washington and other private plaintiffs sued challenging the constitutionality of the ban.   In December of 2017 the Western District of Washington and three other federal judges issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on the implementation of the ban.

In March 2018, President Trump announced a plan to implement the ban.  In Karnoski v. Trump,[i] the State of Washington, one of the plaintiffs opposing the ban, brought a motion for summary judgment.  The court granted part and denied part of the motion. In the decision the court stated as follows:

The Court also rules that, because transgender people have long been subjected to systemic oppression and forced to live in silence, they are a protected class. Therefore, any attempt to exclude them from military service will be looked at with the highest level of care, and will be subject to the Court’s “strict scrutiny.” This means that before Defendants can implement the Ban, they must show that it was sincerely motivated by compelling interests, rather than by prejudice or stereotype, and that it is narrowly tailored to achieve those interests.[ii]

The case will move forward to this issues of what deference, if any, is owed to the ban and whether the ban violates equal protection, substantive due process and the First Amendment.

This decision is of course appealable to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

[i] Karnoski v Trump, C17-1297-MJP, Western District of Washington.

[ii] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4437586-Karnoski-Order-041318.html


The author[s] is solely responsible for this blog submission.  It does not represent the position of the New York State Bar Association or its Committee.

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