Supreme Court to allow Trump’s ban on trans servicemembers to remain in place

This is obviously not a good sign:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will allow the Trump administration to implement its policy barring transgender people from serving in the military while legal proceedings move forward.

The high court agreed to pause a lower court order that had blocked the administration from implementing its ban nationwide. The Justice Department sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court left in place that district court’s injunction. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would deny the administration’s request.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cheered the Supreme Court’s order as a “massive victory” and said in a social media post that President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “are restoring a military that is focused on readiness and lethality – not DEI or woke gender ideology.”

But Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign, which are representing the service members challenging the ban, reiterated their belief that the policy violates the Constitution and will ultimately be invalidated.

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a devastating blow to transgender service members who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation’s defense,” the groups said in a statement. “By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice. Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve.”

As we discussed on the recent podcast with Leah Litman. Alito and Thomas have expressed many times the idea that civil rights and liberties for LGBTQ people are unacceptable because they might imply something bad about people who don’t think that LGBTQ people do not merit equal citizenship, and these views are becoming particularly widespread on the right. Particularly with transphobia playing a critical role in Trump winning re-election, it seems very likely that Bostock will be an aberration rather than a sign of more widespread tolerance of people with queer sexual identities. And definitely don’t think Obergefell is safe.