The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will let President Trump restore to the military a long-standing ban on transgendered people in its ranks.
The ban in place since the creation of the military was abruptly lifted by President Obama.
The Daily Caller reported the high court did not explain its decision to restore the ban.
However, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan noted their dissent.
After Trump restored the traditional standard, his opponents filed suits in federal courts, and judges in several states ruled against the president’s decision.
The Trump administration then petitioned the Supreme Court to resolve the matter.
The lawsuits argued the Trump administration violated the First Amendment, equal protection and due process. But they didn’t address the fact that there is no constitutional right to participate in the armed forces.
The government called on the high court’s intervention because the lower courts’ rulings “require the military to maintain a policy that, in its own professional judgment, risks undermining readiness, disrupting unit cohesion, and weakening military effectiveness and lethality.”
A second request then was submitted to let the ban be enforced while the litigation continues. That petition was granted.
President Trump used Twitter to announce his reversal of Obama’s decision.
The military then released an implementation plan allowing people with a history of gender dysphoria to enlist but requiring they identify according to their biological sex.
When Obama ordered the military to let transgenders serve openly, the courts were silent.
But judges jumped into action to oppose Trump when he decided to reverse Obama’s ruling.
Just before the 2016 election, Obama Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter declared transgender individuals could serve openly in the military.
That put American taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in sex-change costs. The treatments also made the troops undergoing the change undeployable for much of their time in the military.
When Trump reversed Obama, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said the president simply was refocusing the military’s mission to emphasize “readiness and unit cohesion.”
“The military is not a social club but rather a fine-tuned fighting machine of men and women who defend our freedom,” said Staver. “It is not a right but a privilege to serve.”
Staver said the “duty of military officers is to appropriately lead and prepare their personnel to serve and protect, and they cannot do that when there is confusion, dysfunction and distraction.”